Category Archives: Environment

Steinway, then the highway: national piano competition forced to flee Shepparton floods

Posted on by

Final round of the competition brought forward to Friday so competitors and others involved could escape imminent inundation

It wasn’t quite the doomed band on the Titanic playing on heroically, but the finalists in this year’s Australian national piano award were faced with an unexpected challenge as the flood water rose around the Riverlinks Eastbank theatre in Shepparton, where the event’s semi-final stage was due to finish on Friday.

“That would be a very dramatic way of putting it,” said Anthony Chen, 27, although he said he had never experienced conditions like it in his musical career.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Covid quarantine centre to reopen for flood evacuees – as it happened

Posted on by

Daniel Andrews says 500 homes have been flooded and another 500 have been isolated. This blog is now closed

An estimated 500 homes are flooded in Victoria with number expected to grow: Daniel Andrews

Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has been on ABC radio Melbourne this morning, providing listeners with an update on the floods.

Obviously this has been a very, very significant flood event and it’s far from over. There’s a little bit more rainfall but as that weather event passes through, the real challenge is waters continuing to rise and more and more houses being inundated, more and more communities being closed off, becoming isolated, then of course we move to clean up and all of those issues.

We think there’s about 500 homes that are flooded, we think there are another 500 that have been isolated across the state. But I would just say they’re very early estimates and the aerial intelligence gathering choppers are up in the air now ... they’ll be doing all their reports back to the state control centre. So I’d say those numbers are absolutely certain to grow. And indeed, we’re still asking people to leave in some areas. There have been important, important evacuation notices have been issued in a number of communities. So those numbers will go up. That’s why we’ve got nine important relief centres opening and 50 sandbag collection points. There’s an enormous amount of work going on.

Continue reading...

‘Danger period’: Victorians and Tasmanians on high alert as rivers rise rapidly after heavy rain

Posted on by

Evacuation orders in place across Tasmania and Victoria due to flooding, including in parts of suburban Melbourne’s north-west

Flood-hit communities in north and north-west Tasmania are entering a “danger period” as rivers rise, with evacuation orders current for multiple towns and part of Launceston.

Victorian communities also remain on high alert for dangerous flooding, with residents in six towns urged to leave their homes and move to higher ground.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Labour vows to treble solar power use during first term if elected

Posted on by

Ed Miliband criticises Liz Truss’s ‘anti-green-energy dogma’ after plans to ban solar projects revealed

Labour has criticised prime minister Liz Truss’s plan to ban solar power from most of England’s farmland and vowed to treble the renewable energy source in its first term.

Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, will visit a solar farm on Friday. He is to lay out his opposition to plans by Truss and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, who the Guardian revealed earlier this week are hoping to ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Victoria and Tasmania hit by flooding; NT triple murderer sentenced to life in jail

Posted on by

Seventy flood warnings in place across Victoria, with 10,000 people without power and 40 schools and childcare centres shut. Follow the day’s news live

‘Walk the talk Labor’: Spender urges government to help households decarbonise

Independent MP Allegra Spender has taken to social media to urge the Albanese government to take action supporting Australian households as they decarbonise:

Our families and businesses are hurting. Sovereign risk is not a defence when the super profits are being made because of a war.

Continue reading...

Liz Truss on collision course with Jacob Rees-Mogg over solar power ban

Posted on by

PM wants to prevent panels on 58% of farmland but business secretary says renewables need to be boosted

Liz Truss is facing a rebellion from Jacob Rees-Mogg’s business department over plans to ban solar power from most of England’s farmland.

The prime minister and her environment secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, want to ban solar from about 41% of the land area of England, or about 58% of agricultural land, the Guardian revealed earlier this week.

Continue reading...

US firms exploiting Trump-era loophole over toxic ‘forever chemicals’

Posted on by

Study finds chemical companies dodging federal law designed to track how many PFAS plants are pumping into environment

Chemical companies are dodging a federal law designed to track how many PFAS “forever chemicals” their plants are discharging into the environment by exploiting a loophole created in the Trump administration’s final months, a new analysis of federal records has found.

The Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act put in place requirements that companies discharging over 100lb annually of the dangerous chemicals report the releases to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But during the implementation process, Trump’s EPA created an unusual loophole that at least five chemical companies have exploited.

Continue reading...

Shanghai says water supplies ‘normal’ after shortage scare sparks hoarding

Posted on by

People rush to stockpile bottled water amid emergency measures at reservoirs after record drought

A wave of panic buying has swept Shanghai in recent days, as rumours swirled of drinking water shortages despite assurances from local authorities that supplies remained normal.

Record-breaking droughts in China dried up parts of the Yangtze River, and prompted saltwater intrusions into the estuary and depleted reservoirs feeding Shanghai, which sits at the mouth of the crucial river. Caixin media reported on Tuesday that Shanghai authorities had taken emergency measures to secure water supply after the intrusions contaminated two of Shanghai’s four primary reservoirs and forced their temporary closure.

Continue reading...

Labor ramps up pressure on gas industry as energy prices rise but stops short of price caps

Posted on by

Unions accuse resource minister Madeline King of signing ‘dud deal’ with multinational gas companies

Labor is ratcheting up pressure on the gas industry as it contemplates a workable policy mechanism to lower prices.

The energy minister, Chris Bowen, on Tuesday night ruled out intervening in the market with price caps after the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, confirmed the government was revisiting the problem of gas prices given soaring energy costs are driving domestic inflation and punching a hole in household budgets.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Power giants to face windfall tax after all as Liz Truss delivers U-turn

Posted on by

Prime minister accused of ‘another screeching U-turn’ having previously rejected calls to impose levy

Renewable power companies will have their revenues capped in England and Wales, after the government bowed to pressure to clamp down on runaway profits.

The announcement late on Tuesday night provoked immediate accusations that Downing Street had performed “another screeching U-turn” – having previously rejected calls to impose a windfall tax on power giants.

Continue reading...

Police urge drivers to stay off flooded roads after NSW man dies in submerged car

Posted on by

Death of 46-year-old south of Bathurst comes as New South Wales and Victoria brace for heavy rain and severe weather

Police have urged motorists not to drive into flooded roads after the body of a missing man was found in his submerged vehicle in New South Wales’ central west.

The death of the 46-year-old comes as much of NSW braces for further deluges, with more than 100 flood warnings in place.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

British Museum urged to drop BP sponsor deal for Egypt exhibition

Posted on by

Brian Eno, Ahdaf Soueif and Miriam Margolyes sign open letter about exhibition opening shortly before Cop27

Campaigners including the musician Brian Eno, the author Ahdaf Soueif and the actor Miriam Margolyes have criticised BP’s sponsorship of an exhibition of Egyptian artefacts at the British Museum.

The exhibition opens shortly before the critical Cop27 climate summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh this November.

Continue reading...

Man shot dead by police in Brisbane – as it happened

Posted on by

Queensland police say officers had been called to Edmonstone Street in South Brisbane around 3pm. This blog is now closed

Treasurer says surging electricity costs will make inflation ‘hang around longer’

We brought you the grim news on the blog yesterday that the head of Alinta energy has predicated a 35% increase to retail electricity bills next year, as energy providers juggle phasing out fossil fuels alongside investment in renewables.

I think one of the reasons this inflation will hang around longer than we want it to is because there are expectations around these electricity price rises being more problematic for longer.

You’ve said the government would put the economy above politics, can you really say that’s what you doing if you leave the stage-three tax cuts in place as they are?

I can say that, and I think what people will see in the budget in two weeks’ time is some difficult decisions in difficult times.

Our job is to make sure that our budgets are perfectly calibrated to the economic conditions as we confront them.

Continue reading...

UK’s lost leadership role hurts Somalia’s fight against famine, says drought envoy

Posted on by

Britain is no longer the key humanitarian player and ‘great ally’ it once was, says envoy trying to get support for Somalia’s drought

The UK has lost its leadership role in the world and is letting down its allies, a senior official in the Somali government has said.

Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, the presidential envoy for Somalia’s drought response, said Britain used to be second only to the US as a key player in international forums and advocacy, but has since slipped, saying that countries such as Somalia were being left without support to face “the new climate reality”.

Continue reading...

Venezuela floods kill 25 after month’s worth of rain falls in eight hours

Posted on by

At least 52 missing as military and rescue personnel searched for survivors

At least 25 people died and 52 were missing after five small rivers in central Venezuela flooded due to heavy rains, the government said.

The downpour on Saturday night swept large tree trunks and debris from surrounding mountains into the town of Tejerias, 67km south-west of the capital, Caracas, damaging businesses and farmland, according to the vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez.

Continue reading...

NSW weather: rain subsides but heavy falls expected midweek

Posted on by

Dozens of rivers still flooding and evacuation orders in place across state as reprieve from rain set to be short-lived

Rain has eased over much of New South Wales but dozens of rivers are still flooding and evacuation orders are in place as authorities forecast another rain system to arrive midweek.

People across the state were forced to flee their homes over the weekend amid rising flood waters and thousands of others are poised to leave if ordered as dams spill and river peaks move downstream.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Chicken farms may explain decline of the River Wye, tests suggest

Posted on by

Citizen scientists find high phosphorous levels in the soil could be polluting the river in Herefordshire

Campaigners have revealed the results of farmland testing which provides new evidence of the potential link between intensive poultry units and the decline of the River Wye.

Citizen scientists sampled farmland along public footpaths near a tributary to the river in Herefordshire. They discovered the soil with the highest levels of phosphorus, which can blight a river, were close to intensive poultry units.

Continue reading...

Extinction Rebellion protesters glue hands to prized Picasso – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Dutton on his answer to filling the gap should stage-three tax cuts go through

Dutton:

If you look at even post lockdowns on a month by month basis, you can see months where we’ve gone back into surplus, so the settings we have in government, our instinct as Liberals, as a Coalition when it comes to budget management are vindicated.

When you look at where we are with a 50-year low unemployment, when you look at the strength of the underlying indicators here in Australia, that is a very significant contrast to where the UK or US budget is, and this government inherited a very strong position after nine years of Coalition management.

David, we went to the last election with a promise and I’m not in the business of breaking promises. The prime minister can contemplate it. He looked the Australian public in the eye and it seems he wasn’t so genuine and that he was prepared to make that statement.

I want to see the prime minister honour his commitment and not lie to the Australian people.

Continue reading...

Rescuers pull people from cars stuck in flood water as more NSW residents told to evacuate

Posted on by

NSW SES commissioner Carlene York says it is ‘very dangerous out there’ and the rivers are still rising

Communities across large parts of New South Wales were on flood alert on Sunday afternoon, with a saturated landscape and swollen rivers in line for a further drenching on Wednesday.

By 1pm on Sunday, the NSW State Emergency Service had received more than 340 requests for help and carried out 28 flood rescues over the previous 24 hours – many were rescued from vehicles as they tried to drive through flood water.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

North American gray whale counts dwindling for the last two years

Posted on by

An assessment released Friday shows the population is down 38% from its peak in 2015 and 2016

US researchers say the number of gray whales off western North America has continued to dwindle during the last two years, a decline that resembles previous population swings over the past several decades but is still generating worry.

According to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries assessment released Friday, the most recent count put the population at 16,650 whales – down 38% from its peak during the 2015-16 period. The whales also produced the fewest calves since scientists began counting the births in 1994.

Continue reading...