The Guardian
Murray-Darling system under strain as tree plantations increase 41%
Farmers and others in Mildura region are warning trees could be left to wither and die
A huge expansion of irrigated crops in the Mildura region of the lower Murray is threatening to overtake the water available in the river, and has set the scene for a disaster if drought conditions return.
A 16-day heatwave that hit the region this summer exposed the vulnerability of the Sunraysia and western New South Wales regions. During that time, the Murray-Darling basin’s water managers scrambled to meet demand, as the region experienced a run of days over 35C between 16 and 29 January.
Continue reading...Bulgarians rush to save a phalanx of distressed, frozen storks
Villagers come to the rescue after icy wings ground hundreds of migrating birds
What would you do if you encountered scores of distressed storks covered in ice lying in a snow-covered field? In Bulgaria, people have been taking them home.
A cold snap in the north-east of the country has stranded hundreds of the migrating birds this week, covering their wings in ice and grounding them.
Continue reading...This is just fracking by another name | Letters
The threat that you refer to (National parks land faces new oil threat, campaigners warn, 16 March) actually looms over a great swathe of south-east England, not just national parks. And the plethora of promised wells will not be “conventional” as your article states – at least not in the scientifically accepted meaning of the word. A new, political definition of “conventional” was inserted into national minerals planning guidance in March 2014 by the then Department of Energy and Climate Change. It declared “conventional” all sources of oil and gas in limestone and sandstone. This is not true. Both limestone and sandstone, geologically speaking, can be conventional or unconventional. The scientific divide between the two pivots on permeability – how freely oil or gas can flow through the rocks. And, deep within the shale under the Weald, the thin, muddy limestone layers that are currently the target of oil companies have low permeability. They are unconventional.
It is convenient for the oil industry to be able to claim its drilling to be conventional. To the public, media and planners it makes oil wells seem a more minor issue. But the industry’s plans are major. Precisely because of the low permeability of the target rocks (now muddy limestone, soon no doubt the surrounding shale), there will be a need for a great many wells. You can extract oil only by getting up close to each bit of “unconventional” rock, and dissolving it with acid or cracking it open. Stephen Sanderson, CEO of UK Oil and Gas, said of his plans for Surrey and Sussex: “This type of oil deposit very much depends on being able to drill your wells almost back to back.”
Continue reading...Flooding and heavy rains rise 50% worldwide in a decade, figures show
Such extreme weather events are now happening four times more than in 1980, according to a European science paper
Global floods and extreme rainfall events have surged by more than 50% this decade, and are now occurring at a rate four times higher than in 1980, according to a new report.
Other extreme climatological events such as storms, droughts and heatwaves have increased by more than a third this decade and are being recorded twice as frequently as in 1980, the paper by the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac) says.
Continue reading...NSW Labor refuses to approve forestry agreements based on 'out-of-date' science
In wake of Guardian Australia report, Penny Sharpe says regional forest agreements must include climate change as a consideration
NSW Labor has demanded that climate change be on the table as part of a full scientific assessment of the state’s regional forest agreements (RFAs), which are set to expire over the next two years.
Penny Sharpe, opposition environment spokeswoman, said NSW Labor would not sign off on proposed extensions because the government “knows the science underpinning the RFAs is out of date and incomplete”.
Continue reading...Europe faces 'biodiversity oblivion' after collapse in French birds, experts warn
Authors of report on bird declines say intensive farming and pesticides could turn Europe’s farmland into a desert that ultimately imperils all humans
The “catastrophic” decline in French farmland birds signals a wider biodiversity crisis in Europe which ultimately imperils all humans, leading scientists have told the Guardian.
A dramatic fall in farmland birds such as skylarks, whitethroats and ortolan bunting in France was revealed by two studies this week, with the spread of neonicotinoid pesticides – and decimation of insect life – coming under particular scrutiny.
Continue reading...Tell us: what actions will you be taking for Earth Hour?
We want to hear from people around the world switching things off and getting involved in Earth Hour 2018
Global organisers of Earth Hour, a grass roots movement for the environment asking people to switch off electricity for an hour on 24 March, say they hope to energise millions of people and that “every action counts”.
Continue reading...Loopholes in Queensland's new land-clearing laws 'would allow broadscale razing'
Environmental Defenders Office to urge Palaszczuk government to amend proposed laws
The Queensland Environmental Defenders Office says proposed new land-clearing laws in the state leave significant loopholes that would allow broadscale clearing to continue unchecked.
The group will on Thursday lodge a submission urging the Palaszczuk government to amend its proposed vegetation management laws.
Continue reading...A judge asks basic questions about climate change. We answer them
California judge William Alsup put out a list of questions for a climate change ‘tutorial’ in a global warming case
Continue reading...
Narrabri gas project fire risk unacceptable, firefighters say
The Santos project would be exempt from complete fire bans and allowed to flare gas, even in catastrophic fire weather
Firefighters with decades of experience working around the bushfire-prone Pilliga forest say Santos’s controversial Narrabri gas project will create an unacceptable fire risk to workers at the site, as well as to surrounding properties.
Those firefighters, who have also opposed the project on other environmental grounds, say fires in the area can be so fast and ferocious that in some weather conditions the project site would need to be evacuated, since if a fire did start there would likely not be enough time to evacuate workers.
Continue reading...‘Monty Pythonesque’: $80m water buyback was 25% more than asking price
Australia Institute says commonwealth paid far more than initial price for Condamine-Balonne river system buyback
“Monty Pythonesque” is how the Australia Institute has described the federal government’s decision to pay $80m for a water buyback in the Condamine-Balonne river system in Queensland last year.
The Guardian reported this month that the company selling the water to the commonwealth, Eastern Australian Agriculture, had immediately recorded a $52m gain on the sale of its water in July 2017. The company itself had valued the water rights much lower in its accounts.
Continue reading...Exclusive: legal concerns over plan to roll over forestry agreements without reviews
Documents reveal government plans to extend RFAs without fresh environmental or scientific reviews
Federal and state ministers have discussed legal concerns that imminent extensions to logging agreements might be invalid as they are based on old scientific assessments.
Commonwealth and state concerns about the “legal and political risks” to the RFA extensions that are about to be agreed are highlighted in a collection of 10 documents – including briefing notes and “contentious issues briefs” – prepared for the New South Wales primary industries minister, Niall Blair, and the state’s lands and forestry minister, Paul Toole, and obtained by Guardian Australia.
Continue reading...Last male northern white rhino's death highlights 'huge extinction crisis'
The tragic death of Sudan the rhino should act as a warning of the need to act to prevent mass extinctions around the world, say conservationists
Conservationists have warned that the death of the last male northern white rhinoceros in Kenya is a sign that unsustainable human activity is driving a new era of mass extinctions around the globe.
Sudan, the “gentle giant” who lived in the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, was put down on Monday after the pain from a degenerative illness became too great.
Continue reading...Gove tells Tory MPs to 'keep eye on prize' in row over fishing waters
Environment secretary says UK control of fishing waters delayed, not abandoned, by Brexit deal
The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has issued a coded warning to rebellious Tories to keep their “eyes on the prize” as he said he understood the fishing industry’s grave disappointment at Theresa May’s agreement to keep EU fishing policies during the Brexit transition period.
Scottish Conservative MPs are due to meet the prime minister in Downing Street on Tuesday following an outcry from the industry over the deal struck with Brussels.
Continue reading...Sudan, the world's last male northern white rhino, dies – video report
The last male northern white rhino has died, leaving only two females to save the species from total extinction.
Sudan, the ‘gentle giant’ who lived on the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, was put down on Monday after the pain from a degenerative illness became too great. He is survived only by his daughter and granddaughter
Continue reading...Fishermen: tell us what you think of the recent Brexit concessions
If you work in the UK fishing industry we’d like to hear what you think about the latest changes to affect fisheries
After pledging to repatriate control of UK fisheries and set quotas as part of core Brexit strategy, the government appears to have backed down in face of EU opposition. Instant return of control after Britain leaves the EU no longer seems possible, with vessels from Europe allowed to have continued access during the transition period after 29 March 2019.
Labor vows to block 'largest removal of marine area from conservation, ever'
Opposition condemns Coalition plan to open more recreational and commercial fishing areas
Labor says it will move to disallow new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government, branding the change the “largest removal of marine area from conservation, ever, from any government in the world”.
The new management plans were uploaded by officials on the federal register of legislation on Tuesday, cutting across a public announcement the Turnbull government had planned to make on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Shoestring expedition returns with wild photos of Sumatra
A shoestring expedition to one of the remotest places in Sumatra has returned with stunning photos of tigers, tapirs, clouded leopards among other rare species, large and small. Will they find orangutans next?
Last year a motley crew of conservationists, adventurers and locals trekked into one of the last unexplored regions of Sumatra. They did so with a mission: check camera traps and see what they could find. The team – organized by the small NGO, Habitat ID – came back with biological gold: photos of Sumatran tigers, Malayan tapirs, and sun bears. They also got the first record of the Sunda clouded leopard in the area and found a specimen of a little-known legless reptile called Wegner’s glass lizard. But most tantalizingly of all is what they didn’t find, but still suspect is there: a hidden population of orangutans that would belong to the newly described species, Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis).
“The trek into the interior was fraught with hordes of leaches, wasps, cliffs, river-crossings, and trackless jungle, and it pushed everyone on the team to their limits,” Greg McCann, the head of Habitat ID and a team member, said, clearly relishing the adventure to an undisclosed area they call Hadabaun Hills.
Continue reading...Last male northern white rhino is put down
Hopes for species rest on IVF with two females after death of Sudan, the ‘gentle giant’
The last male northern white rhinoceros has died, leaving only two females with which conservationists hope to save the species from extinction.
Sudan, the “gentle giant” who lived in the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, was put down on Monday after the pain from a degenerative illness became too great. He is survived by his daughter and granddaughter.
Continue reading...Survey reveals which Easter eggs use the most packaging
Plastic and cardboard packaging makes up more than a quarter of product weight in some of the UK’s best-selling chocolate eggs
Packaging alone accounts for up to a quarter, on average, of the total weight of the most popular Easter eggs on sale on the High Street, new research by a consumer group has revealed.