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Ghost rodents: get ready to fall in love with Australia's albino rats and mice
Developer lines up reforestation project deal with Ghana
The Guardian view on Plymouth’s lost trees: an act of vandalism | Editorial
The protesters are right. Felling more than 100 trees at night was disrespectful to both local people and nature
The decision taken by Plymouth’s Tory council leader, Richard Bingley, to chop down more than 100 mature trees under cover of darkness earlier this month was damaging to the city as well as the horse chestnut, silver birch, pear, apple and other specimens that were removed. Armada Way, the pedestrianised boulevard that runs south through the city centre to the sea, is a rare postwar conservation area and ought to be a national showpiece. Instead, ugly images of debris strewn among the modern architecture have upset and angered local people and conservationists. They may also set back efforts to boost the city by attracting tourists.
The upset and anger are more than justified by events. A consultation regarding the proposed regeneration of the city centre showed that a majority of locals do not support it. A campaign group, Save the Trees of Armada Way (Straw), gathered a petition of more than 16,000 names. Yet the council ploughed on until it was served with a court injunction by campaigners. On Monday, Mr Bingley resigned, ahead of a council meeting.
Continue reading...European Commission to start auctions of REPowerEU permits in July
VCM Report: Prices slide as jitters spread from Credit Suisse debacle
'Environmental disaster': sailor shows oily sludge polluting water in Poole harbour – video
A sailor in Poole in Dorset posted a video on social media on Sunday showing an oily substance he had noticed leaking into the water in the harbour. He collected some of the 'horrible, oil kind of sludge' in a plastic bottle. The public is being urged to avoid using the water and beaches within Poole after the harbour regulator said a leak occurred at a pipeline operated by gas company Perenco. The incident, which took place at Wytch Farm oilfield, resulted in approximately 200 barrels of 'reservoir fluid' being released from the UK’s largest onshore field
Continue reading...Five planets to line up in night sky
Older people like me need to start protesting for our planet | Bill McKibben
I’m proud to be part of Third Act, a climate activist organization for people over the age of 60
The brutal truth is that last week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report didn’t have the effect it should have had, or that its authors clearly intended. Produced by thousands of scientists who synthesized the work of tens of thousands of their peers over the last decade, and meticulously drafted by teams of careful communicators, it landed in the world with a gentle plop, not the resounding thud that’s required.
In China, the world’s biggest emitter, official attention was focused instead on Moscow, where Xi Jinping was off to do a little male bonding with fellow autocrat Vladimir Putin, incidentally the world’s second largest producer of hydrocarbons. In America, the historical emissions champ, we were riveted by the possibility that would-be autocrat Donald Trump might be indicted. In the New York Times, our planet’s closest thing to a paper of record, the IPCC report was the fourth story on the website.
Continue reading...Climate change: trees grow for extra month as planet warms - study
Buyer pays $52/tonne for first electric clean cooking offsets amidst over-crediting claims
UPDATE – EnBW posts marginal drop in 2022 ETS-covered fossil burn, brings forward coal phaseout
Brookfield seals deal for Origin buyout and $20 billion renewables splurge
Brookfield-led consortium seals deal for $18.7 billion purchase of Australia's biggest energy utility, paving way for a $20 billion splurge on renewables and storage.
The post Brookfield seals deal for Origin buyout and $20 billion renewables splurge appeared first on RenewEconomy.
EU states to address stalled CO2 cars deal after Germany signals breakthrough
Euro Markets: Midday Update
I live near the East Palestine chemical spill. Officials who say we’re safe are lying | Greg Mascher
My granddaughters got red blotches and their eyes burned. I’ve been having headaches and coughing fits
On the evening of 3 February I was at home in East Palestine, Ohio, watching a movie with my granddaughters, when my daughter Adyson called and asked, “Dad, what’s going on downtown?” I looked out the window and there was an orange glow in the sky. I turned the movie down to talk to my daughter but she’d hung up. Ten minutes later she called back and said, “We’re coming to get you.”
We went to try to figure out what had happened and it was like driving into a cloud – smoke was billowing overhead. A Norfolk Southern freight train had derailed. You could see the flames over the tops of nearby houses and feel the heat from several hundred feet away. Huge clouds of smoke were spreading from the crash site over our town.
Greg Mascher is a grandfather and concerned resident of East Palestine, Ohio
Continue reading...China’s Hainan approves mangrove methodology, enhancing local blue carbon scheme
Around 80% of key biodiversity sites have human infrastructure with share set to rise, study finds
ETS & Carbon Land Use Advisor, Forever Forests – Christchurch
Greens will back Labor's safeguard mechanism without a ban on new coal and gas. That's a good outcome
Living on a boat is hard – but it’s worth it to escape the toxic rental market | Faye Keegan
The challenges are myriad, including raising a child and, yes, using the toilet. But we’ve gained so much more than we lost
When people find out that I live on a narrowboat, their eyes light up. They say things like “Gosh, I’d love to do that,” and “That’s so bohemian of you!,” and “It must be so peaceful”. It is peaceful, sometimes, but it’s easy to forget that when you’re struggling to push open a heavy lock gate in the pouring rain with a screaming baby strapped to your chest. Still, I love the way I live: I love being close to the water, and feeling more connected to nature and in sync with the changing seasons than I did living on land.
That isn’t to say boat life was always the plan. I used to imagine I’d end up in some rambling old farmhouse, with Farrow & Ball wallpaper, period features and an open fire. I still get pangs when I visit friends’ seemingly enormous and lavishly equipped houses – upstairs and downstairs! A freezer! Hot taps! But for my husband, Nigel, and I, with our ill-paid, bookish jobs (I’m a writer, he’s a librarian. OK fine, my ill-paid job) along with, you know, The Economy, buying a house just isn’t feasible, especially where we live in Oxford. But owning his own home has always been important to Nige, who grew up in council housing, so we began to explore alternative options. Once we let go of the impossible goal of a house and focused instead on what we could afford, everything changed.
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