The Guardian

New report shows roadmap for Australia to be global green energy export leader

Australia could run entirely on renewable electricity and produce double what it needs to create a massive green export industry by 2050, leading experts say.

A report from scientists working under the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub has examined the economic opportunities of decarbonisation over the coming decades.

Most of the risk is from naturally occurring arsenic, the byproducts of chemicals used to disinfect water and contaminants

Contaminated tap water causes 100,000 cancer cases in the US over a lifetime, according to a new study from scientists with the Environmental Working Group.

Most of the cancer risk is from naturally occurring arsenic, the byproducts of chemicals used to disinfect water and radioactive contaminants, according to the analysis, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Heylion.

Fiordland penguin found 170km west of Melbourne recuperates for eight weeks after 2,500km swim

A New Zealand penguin that washed up on a beach in Victoria has been released back to the wild to complete a 2,500km swim home.

The emaciated Fiordland penguin was found struggling against rocks in the shallows at Kennett River, 170km west of Melbourne, on 10 July.

Tasmanian senator says Hitler would be ‘so proud’ after academic website announces it will not tolerate climate change denial

The Liberal senator Eric Abetz has compared the Conversation website to Hitler, Stalin and Mao, after it announced a zero-tolerance approach to climate change deniers.

The academic news and analysis website has said it will remove comments and lock accounts that put forward those views, outraging the Tasmanian senator.

Strong civil society movements are needed to ramp up pace of change, says study

Greenhouse gas emissions could be halved in the next decade if a small number of current technologies and behavioural trends are ramped up and adopted more widely, researchers have found, saying strong civil society movements are needed to drive such change.

Solar and wind power, now cheaper than fossil fuels in many regions, must be scaled up rapidly to replace coal-fired generation, and this alone could halve emissions from electricity generation by 2030, according to the Exponential Roadmap report from an international group of experts.

Eight-country poll shows people view climate crisis as priority over migration and terrorism

A majority of the public recognise the climate crisis as an “emergency” and say politicians are failing to tackle the problem, backing the interests of big oil over the wellbeing of ordinary people, according to an eight-country poll.

The survey, which comes before what is expected to be the world’s biggest climate demonstrations on Friday, found that climate breakdown is viewed as the most important issue facing the world, ahead of migration, terrorism and the global economy, in seven out of the eight countries surveyed. In the US it comes third behind terrorism and affordable healthcare.

Offshore leasing auction starts for 7GW capacity project that could supply 6m UK homes

The crown estate has opened the first leasing round for offshore windfarms in a decade to usher in a new generation of wind projects expected to eventually generate an investment of £20bn.

The business intends to auction off new seabed rights in the waters around England and Wales to wind power developers. The leasing scheme allows up to 7GW of electricity generation capacity – enough to meet the needs of more than 6m homes.

New Democrat Coalition worried that Green New Deal plays into Republican messaging, seek ‘secure durable climate legislation’

Moderate congressional Democrats worried about the infeasibility of passing the kind of sweeping climate legislation their progressive counterparts are proposing, such as the Green New Deal, are laying out their own policies.

The New Democrat Coalition released an 11-page outline of principles on Wednesday, along with a list of bills to back them up, advocating for incremental and “pro-market” steps to cut pollution.

Greta Thunberg tells Congress to ‘listen to the scientists’ and take real action on climate change.

The teenage climate change campaigner submitted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report on rising temperatures as her testimony, pointing out it was not ‘political opinion’ but simply ‘science’

• Greta Thunberg tells Congress to ‘listen to the scientists’ during testimony – live

New rules will allow production lines at pork plants to run faster, despite concerns over safety and quality

The US government has given the go-ahead to new rules to eliminate production line speed limits at pig slaughterhouses, deeming restrictions “unnecessary” despite fears that lifting them will worsen the already high number of serious injuries suffered by US meat plant workers.

Amputations, fractured fingers, second-degree burns and head trauma are just some of the serious injuries suffered by US meat plant workers every week, according to an investigation last year by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

António Guterres cites ‘fantastic leadership’ of young activists and is counting on public pressure to compel governments to honor the 2015 Paris Agreement

The UN secretary general says that he is counting on public pressure to compel governments to take much stronger action against what he calls the climate change “emergency”.

“Governments always follow public opinion, everywhere in the world, sooner or later,” António Guterres, said Tuesday in an interview with Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets, led by Columbia Journalism Review and the Nation, in partnership with the Guardian. Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, added: “And so … we need to keep telling the truth to people and be confident that the political system, especially democratic political systems, will in the end deliver.”

After crossing the Atlantic on a solar-powered boat, the climate activist Greta Thunberg visited Barack Obama in Washington. The former US president later shared a photo of the pair and praised Thunberg as 'one of our planet's greatest advocates'. The Swedish teenager is in the US to speak at the UN climate summit on 23 September

• Greta Thunberg to Congress: ‘You’re not trying hard enough. Sorry’
  

Canterbury Museum says find overturns presumption pelagornithids evolved in northern hemisphere

The discovery of a toothed seabird fossil north of Christchurch is forcing scientists to rethink theories of the bird’s evolution.

A fossil of a protodontopteryx, believed to have lived 62 million years ago, was found at the Waipara Greensand site on New Zealand’s South Island last year.

National maritime charity, the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society, has revealed the eagerly awaited results of its seventh annual photography competition, showcasing images relating to all aspects of the UK’s historic relationship with the sea.

Having reviewed more than 800 fantastic entries, the judges decided to award Laurence Hartwell the prize for overall winner for 2019, with his entry ‘Landing Mackerel’

Fisheries department will no longer be able to use nets and drumlines to control sharks

The Queensland government has lost its battle for the right to use nets and drumlines to catch and kill sharks in a bid to protect swimmers on the Great Barrier Reef.

The state government appeal to maintain its controversial management program was dismissed on Wednesday in the federal court in Sydney.

BP, Shell and Chevron representatives will be at event on sidelines of UN climate summit

Oil and gas executives are holding an exclusive invitation-only forum with environmentalists and government representatives on the sidelines of the UN climate summit, in what critics have condemned as an attempt to influence negotiations in favour of fossil fuel companies.

Senior executives from leading oil companies including BP, Shell and Chevron will be at the event in New York on 22 September, which they describe as a “closed high-level discussion” with key stakeholders.

One million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, yet governments are failing to stem the tide

The number of mammals, insects, amphibians, fish and birds is in steep decline, the world’s forests are on fire and the abundance of life is diminishing at rates unprecedented in human history. The TV screens are full of images of gorgeous wildlife but one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction and governments appear paralysed.

Faced with stark and mounting evidence of nature’s precipitous decline, leading natural and social science researchers, philosophers, anthropologists and conservationists have come together to ask why conservation is failing, and to call for an urgent re-think of how the natural world should be protected.

Greenland’s ice melt has been adopted by the world as a bellwether for climate crisis, but the impact on biodiversity has been overlooked. At an ice station on a remote Arctic glacier, scientists are looking to the smallest of life forms to predict the pace of species extinction

Behind the remote research huts of Sermilik ice station, a vast sheet of ice stretches north for 1,480 miles, spanning an area three times the size of France.

It is holding 10% of the world’s freshwater, water that has been frozen solid for millions of years. It’s glacier calving season in the south-eastern reaches of Greenland, and the adjacent channel is full of the thunderous roars and cracks of a flotilla of icebergs breaking apart.

Photographers hoping to get a shot of Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg had to contend with a young boy who attempted to shield the often shy teenager from the media. The spontaneous act elicited a smile from Thunberg. Thunberg was attending an event on Capitol Hill and had opted not to speak at the event, choosing instead to listen as other teens spoke about their own environmental concerns. Thunberg attended a Senate climate crisis task force on Tuesday, and told lawmakers: 'Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything.' 

The broadcasters – often among the most trusted voices in their communities – are connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate science, and shifting public opinion

Local TV weather forecasters have become foot soldiers in the war against climate misinformation. Over the past decade, a growing number of meteorologists and weathercasters have begun addressing the climate crisis either as part of their weather forecasts, or in separate, independent news reports to help their viewers understand what is happening and why it is important.

And the reports are having an impact.