Around The Web
Can we dig it? How electrification will drive Australia’s next economic boom

Hydrogen vs electrification: Why ENA’s Gas Vision is a house of cards

McDonald's among food firms urging tougher deforestation rules
CleanCo signs new deal with Neoen for big wind farm near Cairns

Ardern's government and climate policy: despite a zero-carbon law, is New Zealand merely a follower rather than a leader?
Want an electric car, but think you can't afford one? Here's how to buy second-hand
The Guardian view on houseplants: balm for troubled times | Editorial
Pandemic stress can be relieved by cultivating greenery, which makes people happier and more relaxed
The essayist Jia Tolentino wrote last year about people being in the grip of “houseplant fever”; ads for houseplants called “Ken” or “Pippa” pop up on the internet; a Zoom call isn’t complete without a plant somewhere in evidence; and social media abounds with tips and pictures. It should surprise no one that greenery offers an antidote to pandemic anxiety.
Caring for a living object and creating a tranquil indoor sanctuary can be soothing activities in an uncertain and stressful time. The Royal Horticultural Society reported a 23% rise in plant sales in July compared to 2019. Rare plants are sold on eBay and traded on Facebook. Many come from overseas and might look green in a living room but leave a large ecological footprint. Before the pandemic, in the US, getting paid to style houseplants was becoming a career. We are nowhere near the levels of mania that led to tulip bulb prices soaring and then collapsing in the 17th century. Still, today’s rarity-chasers will pay £4,000 for a four-leaf variegated minima – and such high prices pose a temptation to others: a variegated monstera, a cutting of which might fetch £1,500, was stolen last month in New Zealand.
Continue reading...Rescue efforts stepped up after floods kill two near France-Italy border
Operation involving 1,000 firefighters backed up by military is focused on Roya Valley area
French and Italian rescue services have stepped up search efforts after floods cut off several villages near the two countries’ border, causing widespread damage and killing two people in Italy.
Eight people remained unaccounted for on the French side of the border after storms, torrential rain and flash floods battered the area, washing away roads and houses and triggering landslides.
Continue reading...Mountain butterflies 'will have to be relocated as habitats get too hot'
Populations of mountain ringlet in Lake District face being wiped out as cooler habitats disappear
The diversity and resilience of cold-loving butterfly species is threatened by global heating which will destroy genetically unique populations, according to a study.
Native mountain-dwelling butterflies such as the mountain ringlet, the bright-eyed ringlet and the dewy ringlet will have to be translocated to higher altitudes as their cooler habitat disappears to avoid extinction.
Continue reading...'Rarest fern in Europe' discovered in Ireland
Variety has only ever been found in Caribbean more than 4,000 miles across Atlantic
Europe’s rarest fern has been discovered in Killarney, Ireland, leaving botanists baffled over how it remained undetected for so long.
The neotropical fern, Stenogrammitis myosuroides, has only ever previously been found in the mountainous cloud forests of Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic – more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic.
Continue reading...Protect the poor from being penalised by carbon taxes | Torsten Bell
Green economists will never get the public on their side until they factor in the cost to lower-income households
In those glorious pre-pandemic days we only had climate change to worry about. Post-pandemic, we’ll need to get right back to worrying about it – and actually doing something about it.
On the “doing” front, economists like the idea of carbon taxes to help reduce our emissions. And recent research shows that such taxes can work. Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to implement a carbon tax in 1991, having extended VAT to petrol the previous year. The result was 11% lower transport fuel emissions compared with similar OECD countries.
Continue reading...Wind and solar supply more than 50 pct of Australia’s main grid for first time

‘Dramatic’ plunge in London air pollution since 2016, report finds
Exclusive: Number of people living with illegal pollution levels has fallen by 94% since Sadiq Khan became mayor
Air pollution in London has plunged since Sadiq Khan became mayor, with a 94% reduction in the number of people living in areas with illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide. The number of schools in such areas has fallen by 97%, from 455 in 2016 to 14 in 2019.
Experts described the reductions as dramatic and said they showed the air pollution crisis was not intractable. More than 9,000 people in the capital were dying early each year due to dirty air in 2015.
Continue reading...West Australia to build 100MW big battery – the first on state’s main grid
