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Senate committee fails to make official recommendations after South Australia Labor senator, Alex Gallacher, votes with Liberals

A Labor senator has broken ranks with his party to vote with Liberals in support of oil and gas drilling in the Great Australian Bight, deadlocking a Senate committee investigating the proposal.

The Greens have accused the Labor party of being directly influenced by donations from oil giant Chevron. A long-awaited Senate report into the consequences of opening up the Great Australian Bight Marine National Park for oil or gas production was published on Thursday.

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A new study suggests there are remaining biases in the oft-corrected University of Alabama at Huntsville atmospheric temperature estimates

Human emission of heat-trapping gases is causing the Earth to warm. We’ve known that for many decades. In fact, there are no reputable scientists that dispute this fact. There are, however, a few scientists who don’t think the warming will be very much or that we should worry about it. These contrarians have been shown to be wrong over and over again, like in the movie Groundhog Day. And, a new study just out shows they may have another error. But, despite being wrong, they continue to claim Earth’s warming isn’t something to be concerned about.

Perhaps the darlings of the denialist community are two researchers out of Alabama (John Christy and Roy Spencer). They rose to public attention in the mid-1990s when they reportedly showed that the atmosphere was not warming and was actually cooling. It turns out they had made some pretty significant errors and when other researchers identified those errors, the new results showed a warming.

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Australian artists and scientists have been inspired by the amazing travels of migratory shorebirds.

Warming climate makes it ‘inevitable’ that contiguous US will lose all of its glaciers within decades, according to scientists

It’s now “inevitable” that the contiguous United States will lose all of its glaciers within a matter of decades, according to scientists who have revealed the precipitous shrinkage of dozens of glaciers in Montana.

Warming temperatures have rapidly reduced the size of 39 named glaciers in Montana since 1966, according to comparisons released by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Portland State University. Some have lost as much as 85% of their expanse over the past 50 years, with Glacier national park, site of 37 of the surveyed glaciers, set to lose all of its eponymous ice formations within the next few decades. Of the 150 glaciers that existed in the park in the late 19th century, only 26 remain.

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Australia's population is not far from 24 and a half million. It's growing at a shade under 350 thousand a year, of which almost 190 thousand is immigration. At this rate, by mid century we'll be at least 40 million.

‘Whale cams’ and digital tags attached to minkes and humpbacks allow scientists to go below the surface of the Antarctic ocean and experience a day in a life of these ocean giants. The data will help them to understand the animals’ behaviour and the impacts of climate change

• ‘Whale cams’ reveal humpbacks’ habitats – video

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Greens MP responds to damning report, warning taxpayers are left exposed to footing the bill ‘for the huge damage the mining industry is doing to the environment’

Mining companies should be forced to set aside more money for the rehabilitation of mine sites, according to a damning report by the New South Wales auditor general.

While security deposits provided by mining companies have increased from $500m in 2005 to around $2.2bn in 2016 for about 450 mine sites in NSW, the report found the money was still not likely to cover the full costs of each mine’s rehabilitation if the company went out of business or the mine suddenly stopped operating.

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Consumers are needlessly buying bottled water in restaurants and pubs because they feel awkward asking for free tap water, says environmental charity

UK consumers who are too embarrassed to ask a pub or restaurant for a glass of tap water or a refill of their empty bottle are helping to fuel the rising tide of discarded single-use plastic drinks bottles, according to a new survey.

Only a quarter of people admitted to knowing their legal rights when it comes to asking for a glass of tap water, while a third admit to feeling awkward when asking for water for a reusable bottle even if they are buying something else, according to research commissioned by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and Brita UK, a manufacturer of filter jugs.

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Infigen today announced several key changes to the Infigen management team to support the company’s growth strategy.

South Australia rules out "synthetic inertia" - and therefor battery storage - in its energy security target, in a move that could have huge implications for the owners and developers of current and upcoming wind and solar projects in the state.

Executive General Manager, Energy Markets, Stephen Mikkelsen, would be leaving his role at AGL after 11 years of service both in his current role and, formerly, as Chief Financial Officer.

South Korea is Australia's second biggest customer for thermal coal, but election of Moon Jae-In as president raises doubts about future of coal generation in that country.

The Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA) Forum is designed to inspire, engage and dare everyone to believe every act of development must be positive and regenerative.

The theme this year is Building Nutrition: Bringing health, happiness and well-being back to the centre of the design discussion, with the topics being BIOPHILIC DESIGN & CITIES, PERMACULTURE & URBAN AGRICULTURE, PROMOTING HEALTH & WELLBEING & DELIVERING THE LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE.

/SPEAKERS
BIOPHILIC DESIGN & CITIES
Darren Bilsborough - Studio Leader, Hames Sharley

PERMACULTURE & URBAN AGRICULTURE
Keri Chiveralls - Senior Lecturer/Permaculture Design and Sustainability, CQUniversity

PROMOTING HEALTH & WELLBEING
Deborah Davidson - Director, Dsquared Consulting
Sally Modystach - Director, Healthy Environs Pty Ltd

DELIVERING THE LIVING BUILDING CHALLENGE
Stephen Choi - Executive Director of Living Future Institute of Australia

All talks can be viewed here: LFIA Forum ADL 2017

/ EVENT SPONSORS
Adelaide City Council | City Switch

/ MEDIA PARTNER
Environmental Science Media

/ ORGANISING GROUPS
Living Future Institute of Australia - living-future.org.au
Adelaide Sustainable Building Network - adelaidesbn.com.au

Cast: AdelaideSBN

Eight homes successfully separated from main electricity grid and operated as stand-alone solar and battery storage powered mini-grid, in Melbourne trial.

California's high solar penetration means the stakes are high with this summer’s eclipse. Fortunately, Europe has already been down this road.

Tesla opens orders for its much-hyped solar roof, with installations of two varieties of its PV tiles to begin installations in the US mid-year and in Australia in 2018.

Australia can achieve its 2030 climate target by relying on energy productivity gains and tighter controls on high emitting industries – and without legislating an EIS.

Sandy Bedfordshire In a dry, wormless spring our resident male blackbird has become a fisher of newts

Through french windows framed by flowering clematis, I saw a blackbird touch down on the lawn. Leaning even as it landed, its beak led it in a pitter-patter metre-dash for the pond. At the water’s edge its head dipped then jerked back, and it tossed something very large over its shoulder on to the turf.

In this droughty, wormless spring, our resident male blackbird had switched to becoming a fisher of newts.

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Will you ride the tsunami of technology through the jagged reef of climate disruption? To catch it you'll need to paddle hard now.

CEFC job numbers to grow, Budget papers reveal, but CCA again given only enough funds to last to end 2017/18 financial year.