Of 57 species sampled, 35 decreased in number by 50% over four decades, with climate crisis likely factor
Bird populations in a Central American tropical rainforest are suffering severe declines, with likely factors including climate breakdown and habitat loss.
Scientists from the University of Illinois tracked species of birds in a protected forest reserve in central Panama to determine if and how populations had changed from 1977 to 2020.
Continue reading...Scientists find fish that could normally tolerate low oxygen levels among those killed in Richmond river
Hundreds of thousands of fish have died after recent flooding in northern New South Wales caused “severe deoxygenation” of rivers, with researchers alarmed at discovering carcasses of species that traditionally tolerate lower oxygen levels.
Scientists are still researching the full of extent of the destruction to marine life along the Richmond river, where multiple fish kill events occurred following flooding in late February and early March. The flooding led to a total lack of oxygen in a 60km stretch of the waterway, between Coraki and Ballina on the northern NSW coast.
Continue reading...New rules could allow Arena to back developments that use CCS, such as that of ‘blue’ hydrogen made with gas, Senate hears
The Morrison government has launched a third attempt to change the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) to allow it to fund a broader range of technologies, including some using fossil fuels.
The Senate has twice in the past year used a disallowance motion to block new regulations introduced by the energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, to expand Arena’s remit to include backing technologies such as hydrogen made with gas and carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Continue reading...Carbon border adjustment mechanism would penalise companies and countries trying to evade responsibility for cutting emissions
High-carbon goods imported into the UK should be subject to new tariffs, to help ensure other countries are fulfilling their obligations to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions as well as the UK, an influential committee of MPs has said.
A carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) would penalise companies and countries trying to evade responsibility for cutting emissions, the MPs said, and provide an incentive for certain industrial sectors to move away from environmentally damaging practices.
Continue reading...BushBank scheme aims to revegetate parcels of private land to create habitat for endangered wildlife and capture carbon
The Victorian government plans to restore an area five times the size of Melbourne as part of a new scheme to increase conservation on private land.
The state’s energy, environment and climate change minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, has announced the government will spend $31m to revegetate parcels of private land to create habitat for endangered wildlife and capture carbon.
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Continue reading...Talks ahead of the key Cop15 summit on halting mass extinction of life were slow – and much has been asked of the developing world
For talks that are meant to be about halting the mass extinction of life on Earth, the slow pace of negotiations in Geneva ahead of Cop15, the major biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, later this year, was not a hopeful sign that meaningful action would follow. As discussions drew to a close this week, little progress was made on the targets and goals that are meant to herald nature’s “Paris moment”.
Rhetoric from rich developed nations about the need for ambition on halting biodiversity loss was not being followed through with resources, negotiators from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa complained.
Continue reading...Solar panels and cleaner-burning stoves have reduced dangers faced by residents of three camps
“The camp has come from the dark into the light,” says Edson Sebutozi Munyakarambi, a refugee living in the Kigeme camp in southern Rwanda.
“Before the solar-powered street lamps, the camp was dark. Some people would come and steal things from the houses,” says Munyakarambi, who chairs the committee that represents the 16,000 people in the camp. “But now no one can rob people on the street corners and the children can study or play outside while they wait for their dinner.”
Continue reading...Every photograph of bleached corals a reminder we’re not doing enough to tackle climate crisis, conservationists say
Conservationists say they have have recorded evidence of coral bleaching under way at Ningaloo off Western Australia’s north-west coast.
It comes just as the Great Barrier Reef on the other side of the country undergoes another devastating mass bleaching event.
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Continue reading...Sydney media’s reactionary momentum machine can help explain crackdown on climate activists
On Wednesday night, as the New South Wales parliament debated a bill that makes blocking roads in the state a jail-worthy offence, the independent MP for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, asked, rhetorically, what had prompted the government’s urgency to pass the legislation.
The bill had been introduced into the parliament late on Wednesday afternoon, with the Coalition providing a one-page brief and no forewarning to the crossbench.
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Continue reading...Meghalaya state hopes for world heritage status for unique bridges, which can take decades to create
India’s famous living bridges – the roots of trees coaxed and stretched into the form of a suspension bridge over a river – have been submitted to Unesco’s tentative list for the coveted world heritage site status.
The mountainous state of Meghalaya in the north-east has more than 100 such bridges in 70 villages, unique structures created by a combination of nature and human ingenuity.
Continue reading...Activists climb on tankers and glue themselves to roads around London, Birmingham and Southampton
Hundreds of environmental protesters have blocked seven oil terminals across the country as part of a campaign to paralyse the UK’s fossil fuel infrastructure.
Early on Friday, supporters of Just Stop Oil began blockades at oil refineries around London, Birmingham and Southampton by climbing on top of tankers and gluing themselves to road surfaces.
Continue reading...New law, which brings in fines of up to $22,000 and up to two years in jail, passes on extra sitting day of parliament
The New South Wales Labor party has helped pass a bill that could see protesters who block roads, ports or rail in the state spend up to two years in jail, despite outrage from unions and environmental groups.
After being forced to call an extra sitting day, thanks to the Greens mounting a filibuster attempt, the government was able to pass the bill into law with Labor’s backing on Friday, just two days after it first introduced the legislation into parliament.
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Continue reading...The ISA, obliged to frame industry rules by 2023, drops reporting service and is accused of lacking transparency in plans for mining
• Podcast: The race to mine the deep sea
The UN-affiliated organisation that oversees deep-sea mining, a controversial new industry, has been accused of failings of transparency after an independent body responsible for reporting on negotiations was kicked out.
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is meeting this week at its council headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, to develop regulations for the fledgling industry. But it emerged this week that Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB), a division of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), which has covered previous ISA negotiations, had not had its contract renewed.
Continue reading...As occupiers abandon site and IAEA moves back in, power company says soldiers were exposed by digging trenches in radioactive zone
The UN atomic watchdog is investigating Ukrainian claims that Russian soldiers occupying Chernobyl nuclear power station left after receiving high doses of radiation.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it could not confirm the claims by Ukrainian state power company Energoatom and was seeking an independent assessment.
Continue reading...Rainforests looked after by communities absorb twice as much carbon as other lands, analysis shows
Paris climate agreement goals will fail unless the rights of Indigenous people who protect rainforests are honoured, according to a new report.
Forest lands stewarded by Indigenous people and communities in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru sequester about twice as much carbon as other lands, according to the analysis.
Continue reading...Investigation began after discovery of ‘deviated’ wells drilled from neighbouring properties
The Queensland government has fined coal seam gas company Arrow Energy $1m for breaches of land access rules over four years, after an investigation into allegations the company drilled diagonally beneath farmland without notifying the landholders.
The fine is among the most significant non-compliance penalties ever issued to a resources company in Queensland. Groups that have raised concerns against the rapid spread of the coal seam gas wells in Queensland’s farming communities say the penalty is a “small start”, but that landholders’ rights to object to gas drilling must now be strengthened.
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Continue reading...UK Export Finance used £5.24bn of taxpayer money to fund overseas energy and infrastructure ventures – despite its own review raising concerns
The British government has provided more than £5bn in the past three years to overseas energy and infrastructure projects linked to labour abuses and environmental damage, according to documents and interviews with workers.
The funding – a combination of loans and guarantees – comes from the government’s export credit agency, UK Export Finance (UKEF), a government department to help UK companies access business contracts overseas.
Continue reading...Severe weather warnings issued for parts of eastern Australia still recovering from recent floods, with heavy rain forecast
Towns in northern New South Wales are bracing for another bout of possibly life-threatening flash floods, with the State Emergency Service ordering parts of flood-hit Lismore to move out of harm’s way.
The NSW SES on Monday issued an evacuation order about 7.30pm for North Lismore stating “residents must evacuate by 9pm”. Residents of South Lismore were ordered to leave by 10pm.
Continue reading...Environmentalists call changes ‘everything you could ever dream about’ but industry says they ‘undermine the economics of delivering housing’
Property developers in New South Wales are fighting against the introduction of a wide-ranging planning policy aimed at ensuring houses are more energy-efficient and climate-resilient, which one environment group described as “everything you could ever dream about”.
Public comment closed last month on the draft Design and Place state environmental planning policy, hailed late last year by the then planning minister Rob Stokes as “NSW’s first comprehensive design policy”. It would offer “an important opportunity to reshape the look and feel of the places we live in”.
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Continue reading...Chris Thorogood had to venture deep into the Luzon rainforest to set eyes on the extraordinary Rafflesia banaoana
It was after travelling 6,600 miles and battling through the tropical assault course of the Luzon rainforest that Chris Thorogood set his eyes upon the rare and extraordinary flower that ignited his childhood imagination 30 years ago.
Thorogood, 38, last month became the first westerner to see the Rafflesia banaoana – an otherworldly-looking red spotted species that spans half a metre across – in an experience that reduced him to tears.
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