Feed aggregator

ExxonMobil and Suncor face lawsuits in the western state but big oil’s apologists say the US consumer is to blame for emissions

More than a decade after the Fourmile Canyon blaze drove even the firefighters out of Gold Hill, blackened hillsides and scorched trees attest to the Colorado mountain town’s close shave with destruction.

“Because of the wind and the dryness, it took off,” said Chris Finn, who volunteers as the town’s fire chief when he’s not running the local inn. “That day in 2010, I felt that my business and my house might not be here any more.”

Continue reading...

We need products we can repair, reuse and recycle – not ones deliberately built to become obsolete

Never have we wanted, owned and wasted so much stuff. Our consumptive path through modern life leaves a wake of social and ecological destruction – trainers barely worn, ignored AI-powered digital assistants gathering dust, and forgotten smartphones languishing in drawers. By what perverse alchemy do our newest, coolest things so rapidly transform into meaningless junk?

Related: From fashion to field: shredded cotton clothing used to help grow future crops

Continue reading...

China’s recently launched national emissions trading system (ETS) has been both lauded and loathed by pundits. Some see it as hugely important, while others see it as little more than virtue signalling. The reality is somewhere in the middle, writes TransitionZero's Matthew Gray.

Jilin Electric Power said Sunday night that it will build a provincial voluntary carbon reduction market, with the help of the Shanghai environment exchange, the latest local effort to participate in the country’s emerging but still unclear voluntary market.

Scientists, ecologists and artists have collaborated to showcase global work to protect seeds in an exhibition at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & art gallery (Ramm) in Exeter.

Seedscapes: future-proofing nature runs until 5 September

Continue reading...

Lemon, blacktip, bonnethead and nurse sharks retreat from sea as state struggles to contain pollution problem

• Florida red tide: is fertilizer plant spill making it worse?

Hundreds of coastal sharks have taken refuge in a Florida canal, apparently to escape the effects of a toxic red tide outbreak killing hundreds of tons of marine animals.

Related: Sexy secret life of basking sharks uncovered in Hebrides

Continue reading...

Labor to support parts of Angus Taylor's re-issued ARENA regulations, including funds for sustainable transport, metals and microgrids.

The post Labor softens stance on Taylor’s changes to ARENA regulations appeared first on RenewEconomy.

EnergyAustralia allowed to divert 3,500 megalitres a day – roughly 1,400 olympic-sized pools worth of water – from Morwell River to save Yallourn coal mine.

The post “Best way out of bad situation:” Major river diversion for coal mine repairs appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Researchers find fragments in innards of species that have adapted to develop in open ocean, which has highly polluted areas

Young marine turtles are swallowing large quantities of plastic, with ocean pollution changing habitats that were once ideal for their development into a risk, researchers have found.

The impact of plastic on wildlife is a growing area of research, and studies have revealed harrowing cases of marine animals sustaining injuries or dying after ingesting such material or becoming entangled in it.

Continue reading...

Origin might as well take advantage of federal government support of the gas industry and get out of gas while it can still find buyers.

The post Origin should get out of gas while it can, and shift to green hydrogen appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Hydro Tasmania CEO Evangelista Albertini has announced that Amy Childs, Managing Director of Hydro Tasmania’s mainland energy retailer Momentum Energy, has resigned.

The post Hydro Tasmania announces resignation of Momentum Energy Managing Director Amy Childs appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Job movements at Momentum, Allens, Transgrid, Lavo and Neoen.

The post Grid Connections: People movements in Australia’s energy business appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Neoen says ramp up of Bulgana wind battery hub slower than it had hoped, but it should reach full capacity by the end of the year.

The post “Now on right track:” Bulgana wind battery hub to be at full capacity by year end appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A software platform described as an essential tool to understand rapidly developing carbon markets launched by its Australian developers.

The post Melbourne outfit launches carbon market trading platform appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Scientists are racing to come up with technologies that can solve the world's clean water shortage.

Scientists are increasingly concerned climate change is making fires more frequent and more intense.

Iranian officials have warned of historic drought while experts blame years of poor water management.

Allegra Stratton says carbon emissions must change ‘right now’, as UK moves towards 2050 goal

The UK’s goal of tackling the climate crisis by reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 is “too far away”, the prime minister’s climate change spokesperson has said.

Allegra Stratton, Boris Johnson’s former press secretary, said the “science is clear” that the UK must change its carbon emission output “right now”.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Green group decries infrastructure department’s ‘dodgy offset’ plan to use government site that already had protections

Federal environmental department officials questioned the credibility of a government plan to use heritage-listed land it already owned as the main environmental offset for the western Sydney airport.

Documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws show officials asked the federal infrastructure department to justify the use of Defence Establishment Orchard Hills to offset the destruction of more than 100ha of critically endangered Cumberland Plain woodland and other habitat.

Continue reading...

Investment in flood defences is overdue. But progress on climate resilience requires confronting vested interests too

Nothing about the climate crisis is easy. The challenge of adapting to global heating and the climate disruption it causes is particularly hard. It forces us to reckon with harms that cannot be undone and is sometimes viewed as jeopardising progress on reducing emissions, by drawing away resources and political will. After all, if we can adapt to climate chaos, why bother trying to prevent it?

Since this argument is a staple of climate deniers, such fears are well founded. But unless we are prepared to stand by as people’s lives are destroyed by extreme weather, adaptation is required. For the relief and protection that they will bring to large numbers of people living in flood-prone areas, last week’s announcements of record funding for new defences in England, along with new guidance and insurance rules, must therefore be welcomed. Disastrous floods in Belgium, Germany and China, and the horror of the North American “heat dome”, have alarmed scientists and focused minds.

Continue reading...