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People are dying. Aquatic animals are baking in their shells. Fruit is being cooked on the tree. It’s time to act

Human beings crave clarity, immediacy, landmark events. We seek turning points, because our minds are good at recognizing the specific – this time, this place, this sudden event, this tangible change. This is why we were never very good, most of us, at comprehending climate change in the first place. The climate was an overarching, underlying condition of our lives and planet, and the change was incremental and intricate and hard to recognize if you weren’t keeping track of this species or that temperature record. Climate catastrophe is a slow shattering of the stable patterns that governed the weather, the seasons, the species and migrations, all the beautifully orchestrated systems of the holocene era we exited when we manufactured the anthropocene through a couple of centuries of increasingly wanton greenhouse gas emissions and forest destruction.

This spring, when I saw the shockingly low water of Lake Powell, I thought that maybe this summer would be a turning point. At least for the engineering that turned the southwest’s Colorado River into a sort of plumbing system for human use, with two huge dams that turned stretches of a mighty river into vast pools of stagnant water dubbed Lake Powell, on the eastern Utah/Arizona border, and Lake Mead, in southernmost Nevada. It’s been clear for years that the overconfident planners of the 1950s failed to anticipate that, while they tinkered with the river, industrial civilization was also tinkering with the systems that fed it.

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Oil and gas majors Shell and PetroChina on Monday announced a 5-year supply contract for LNG backed by carbon credits in what they said was the world’s first term deal for carbon neutral LNG.

One of China’s biggest steel-producing hubs has said it will make sure carbon emissions from the industry will peak by 2025 or sooner, adding to the national government’s challenge of setting a suitable CO2 allocation level in the national emissions trading scheme.

Organization: Agora Energiewende Position: Project Lead Coal Regions Just Transition Duty Station: Berlin/Germany OR Bangkok /Thailand Deadline for Application: 8 August 2021

Organization: Agora Energiewende Position: Project Manager Coal Regions Just Transition Duty Station: Berlin/Germany OR Bangkok/Thailand Deadline for Application: 8 August 2021

Organization: Oil Change International Position: Global Campaigns Director Duty Station: Remote Deadline for Application: 25 July 2021

Organization: Oil Change International Position: Regional Program Director Duty Station: Remote Deadline for Application: 25 July 2021

Organization: Greenhouse Gas Management Institute Position: Managing Director Duty Station: Remote position. Open to candidates able to work in US Pacific time zone Deadline for Application: Until suitable applicant is found

Organization: The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Position: Carbon Analyst - Global Carbon Markets Team Duty Station: London, England, UK | Other locations where TNC has an office will be considered Deadline for Application: 22 July 2021

Wildlife authorities say the unprecedented number of deaths was primarily caused by starvation.

After years of Coalition interference - and attempts to depose its CEO - AGL has been forced to undertake emergency measures to save its business.

The post How years of Coalition interference left AGL with no option but to split in two appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Community members quit AusNet consultation group, saying they had been misinformed by network operator over its major grid transmission plans.

The post “Last straw:” Community members slam AusNet grid plans, quit consultations appeared first on RenewEconomy.

One hour spent on Zoom generates less CO2 than driving a car a kilometre. Going virtual is actually a good thing for emissions.

The post Zooming versus flying: The net climate impacts of internet use appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The failure of policy makers and regulators is now being felt in the electricity market, and consumers are being sent the bill.

The post Winter energy price shock: Regulators and policy makers are to blame appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia's first 'land account' is a great example of the nation's environmental policy culture: we develop or adopt good ideas, but then tinker with, or even discard them. Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University Michael Vardon, Associate Professor at the Fenner School, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

State officials report ‘unprecedented’ deaths due to starvation as pollution and algal blooms take toll

More manatees have died already this year than in any other year in Florida’s recorded history, primarily from starvation due to the loss of seagrass beds, state officials have said.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that 841 manatee deaths were recorded between 1 January and 2 July, breaking the previous record of 830 that died during the whole of 2013 because of an outbreak of toxic red tide.

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Number of forced outages from Australia's feet of ageing coal fired generators jumped sharply in the last financial year.

The post Chart of the Day: Australia’s ageing coal plants are not so reliable appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Burning roundwood and stemwood for power actually emits more CO2 than coal per unit of energy generated. The practice must be stopped.

The post Why burning trees for energy makes no sense appeared first on RenewEconomy.

When Unesco recommended the reef be placed on the ‘in danger’ list, the Coalition’s response was to shift the blame. We must do better

• Unesco recommends reef world heritage site be listed as ‘in danger’
• Timeline: decades of damage and Australia’s fight to stop ‘in danger’ listing

Escaping responsibility has become the recurrent theme of the Morrison government. Whether it is the glacial progress of the vaccination rollout, dealing with the megafires two summers ago, or the parlous state of the Great Barrier Reef, someone else is always to blame.

When Unesco released its recommendation to the World Heritage Committee in June to place the Great Barrier Reef on the “in danger” list, the first reaction of the federal government was to blame China.

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"The technology allows for it, but the rules are getting in the way." Why Australia's hybrid wind, solar and battery facilities can't work together.

The post Wind, solar and battery hybrids desperately need a change in market rules appeared first on RenewEconomy.