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We feel besieged and imperilled, and the Johnson government is seizing the chance to weaken our most fundamental liberties

If you were wondering when the widely predicted post-Brexit dystopia might move beyond the imaginings of TV scriptwriters and into the real world, we suddenly seem to be a lot of the way there. Supermarket shelves are either understocked or completely empty. The populist loudmouths who now try to make the political weather have been taking aim in the past week at the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and its supposedly “woke” lifesavers.

Meanwhile, the Johnson government’s descent into whip-crack law enforcement continues apace. Last week’s announcement of a new “crime reduction plan” was centred around the permanent relaxation of restrictions on “suspicionless” (in other words, often arbitrary) stop and search, which had a clear performative aspect: ministers blithely batting away the fact that black people are a staggering 18 times more likely to be searched than white people under these specific powers, presumably to demonstrate a wretched kind of toughness. Johnson also launched plans for chain gangs dressed in hi-vis jackets.

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Fire authorities say Tesla Megapacks still burning at Victoria Big Battery, but Tesla boss says too early to say if project will be delayed.

The post Tesla Megapack still burning, no word if any delays to Victoria Big Battery appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Rewilding projects reveal rare species preserved in buried ancient wetlands

The fertile land of Norfolk is home to a host of stately homes, rare wildlife and more ponds than any other county. Now, estates in the area are trying to hunt down ancient “ghost ponds” in the hopes of reviving centuries-old seeds and discovering long-lost plants.

Botanists believe that this will lead to new plant discoveries; seeds can survive for centuries under layers of leaves and mud so once they are given water and exposed to sunlight the plants will grow. Already, six plants of the endangered wetland flower grass-poly have been found at the edge of an old cattle-watering pond on the Heydon estate in north Norfolk. The species had not been seen in the county since the early 1900s.

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We need to decarbonise and fast. But ‘adaptation’, the ways in which we protect people from the crisis, is not a dirty word

It won’t be enough. It can’t be. From here, even an astonishing pace of decarbonisation will still deliver us a warmer world than we have today, full of more eye-opening extremes and more deeply disruptive disasters of the kind, we are learning this summer, that even the wealthiest and most climate-conscious countries are unprepared for. No one is.

That is what Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, meant when he wrote, with the capital inundated, that the city was now on the frontline of the climate emergency and it is the central lesson of the Met Office’s annual report on the state of the UK climate, which found that mild British weather was already a relic of a bygone era. The Climate Crisis Advisory Group, led by Sir David King, recently declared that greenhouse gas levels were already so high that they foreclosed a “manageable future for humanity”. “Nowhere is safe,” King said, provoking a host of headlines.

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Australian researchers show how 'twisting' ultra thin '2D' materials could be the key to controlling some of the world's thinnest solar cells.

The post Australian researchers say simple ‘twist’ could be key to world’s thinnest solar cells appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The art director JP Boneyard ’s favourite park is Montana’s Glacier national park. “It’s breathtaking, I’m smiling just thinking about it ,” he says. For his screen-print project Fifty-Nine Parks, now collected in a book, he asked modern artists to reinterpret America’s classic national park posters, commissioned by the government in the 1900s.

“I hope they inspire people to visit the parks and connect with nature, but, heck, it’d be awesome if the book inspired folks to pick up a squeegee and start printing too,” he says.

• The Art of the National Parks is published by Insight Editions (£33)

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Drone footage shows the Corfo lagoon in the Chubut province, which has been tinted pink because toxic waste from fishing has been dumped into it. Experts and activists say the pollution is caused by a chemical used to preserve prawns for export. The colour is caused by sodium sulphite, an antibacterial product used in fish factories. Local residents have complained about the foul smells and pollution concerns around the Chubut River that feeds into the Corfo lagoon. In protest against the continued pollution, locals have blocked roads used by fish waste trucks from entering the area

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If we work together to create new sanctuaries or restore old habitat, the butterflies will have a fighting chance

It looks like an indifferent year for butterflies from where I’m standing although I’ve seen large numbers of possibly immigrant red admirals around the Norfolk coast.

We won’t know the season we’re having until we see data from the annual scientific survey and the Big Butterfly Count, which is now under way and will hopefully beat last year’s incredible statistic: 111,628 citizen scientists took part.

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A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) registered a 3% draw on the bank during the first quarter of the year, as heightened deficit generation from gasoline and lower ethanol and biodiesel volumes helped shrink the cumulative credit bank to under 8 million tonnes.

Some 10 nations submitted revised nationally determined contributions to the Paris Agreement on Friday, a day ahead of a deadline for including the pledges in a major UN report.

WCI speculative firms bolstered their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) positions this week as prices declined on the secondary market, while emitters cut their net holdings for the first time in two weeks, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

CO2 emissions rose significantly over the second quarter for emitters regulated in the Northeast US RGGI cap-and-trade programme as COVID-19 precautions were eased, with the cumulative six-month figure running close to estimated compliance holdings after the June auction.

Biffa convicted of exporting filthy rubbish marked as waste paper for recycling in India and Indonesia in breach of ban

The UK’s largest waste company, Biffa, has been fined £1.5m after exporting filthy rubbish marked as waste paper for recycling in India and Indonesia, in actions a judge called “reckless, bordering on deliberate”.

Last week, the company was convicted of sending more than 1,000 tonnes of household waste to India and Indonesia, in breach of a ban on sending such waste to developing countries after a two-week trial at Wood Green crown court .

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• Data shows ice sheet lost 8.5bn tons of surface mass on Tuesday
• All-time record temperature of 19.8C in region on Wednesday

Greenland’s vast ice sheet is undergoing a surge in melting, with the amount of ice vanishing in a single day this week enough to cover the whole of Florida in two inches of water, researchers have found.

The deluge of melting has reached deep into Greenland’s enormous icy interior, with data from the Danish government showing that the ice sheet lost 8.5bn tons of surface mass on Tuesday alone. A further 8.4bn tons was lost on Thursday, the Polar Portal monitoring website reported.

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The UK’s carbon market Cost Containment Mechanism’s triggers for the next three months were invalidated on Friday, with July’s drop in UKA prices averting any potential near-term supply-side intervention.

The new operations centre will help the UK maintain a "battle-winning advantage", ministers say.

A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing, clean fuel standards, and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level this week, including developments in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

A multi-trillion dollar investment firm opened a fund on Thursday that appeared to focus on California Carbon Allowances (CCAs), according to US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) data.

Private equity investor Bridgepoint has bought a minority stake in Amsterdam-based environmental and energy commodities trading company ACT, which said the move will help expansion plans including more than doubling its headcount within five years.