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Brazil: fires reported in Amazon's indigenous reserves spark fear
Bolsonaro issues decree banning fires for 60 days amid fears loggers and land grabbers targeted remote areas during blazes
Fires have been reported in protected indigenous reserves of the Brazilian Amazon, raising fears that loggers and land grabbers have targeted these remote areas during the dramatic surge in blazes across the world’s biggest rainforest.
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has been widely criticised for failing to respond quickly to the crisis, issued a decree on Thursday banning fires in the Amazon for 60 days – a move environmentalists described as largely symbolic.
Continue reading...Why it’s payback time on climate change | Letters
The principle of restorative justice (Glasgow University to pay £20m in slavery reparations, 24 August) also applies to the issue of climate change. I am of a generation that has profited hugely (knowingly or not) from the careless use of fossil fuels. Reports on the Amazon fires just serve to emphasise the urgent need to take action to eliminate carbon emissions and absorb carbon already in the atmosphere.
Reparations in this case are due to the younger and future generations and should start with us “silver rebels” sharply curtailing our emissions and joining with Extinction Rebellion in the collective (international) efforts to eliminate emissions in the next decade, through which many of us elderly hope to live. The “silver rebels” might have less to lose if arrested in the cause. The Guardian’s daily carbon counter will show us how we are all doing.
Daniel Scharf
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Low-carbon technology fund is tonic for Scottish gin maker
Orkney Distillery aims to be the first producer powered by hydrogen and renewable energy
A craft distillery in Scotland could become the greenest gin and whisky producer in the world as part of the government’s plans to cut industrial climate emissions.
The Orkney Distillery has secured a slice of the government’s £390m fund to help develop low-carbon technologies that could reduce carbon emissions from industry. It hopes to use the funds to become the first gin distillery in the world to run on hydrogen made from renewable energy rather than liquid petroleum gas.
Continue reading...Washington’s Puget Sound pushing back LCFS decision until 2020
Trump administration to roll back Obama-era methane regulations
EPA will reverse standards to install controls to curb leaks of methane, a potent pollutant contributing to the climate crisis
The Trump administration is rolling back requirements that oil and gas drillers correct leaks of methane – a potent heat-trapping pollutant contributing to the climate crisis.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced the proposal Thursday, against the wishes of some major oil companies.
Continue reading...LCFS Market: California prices hit eight-month high of $200
Mars mission readies tiny chopper for Red Planet flight
Switzerland sets net zero 2050 emissions goal, still plans to use offsets
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Amazon fires: Brazil bans land clearance blazes for 60 days
Arctic team maps five islands found by Russian student
Greta Thunberg: young activists will push leaders to address climate crisis
‘Leaders know that more eyes are on them, much more pressure is on them,’ says Swedish activist in Guardian interview
Unprecedented pressure exerted by young activists will push world leaders to address the unfolding climate crisis, even with a recalcitrant US under Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg has told the Guardian.
Thunberg, the teenager whose school climate strikes have ignited a global youth-led movement, said that her journey to New York on a solar-powered yacht was symbolic of the lengths young people will take to confront the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Plastic pollution: ‘I’m giving up. You probably should too’ – video
After four years of leading volunteer beach cleans in the west of Wales, Alan Cookson is quitting because of the insurmountable plastic problem around Britain’s coastlines. We join him as he leads his last beach clean to find out why he believes we need to change our approach in the fight against plastic pollution
'Like mopping up a flood': throwing in the towel over beach plastic pollution
Continue reading...Hydrogen could decarbonise global steel production with $35-50/t carbon price -report
Greta Thunberg reaches New York after two-week sailing journey across Atlantic – video
The 16-year-old climate activist arrived in New York on Wednesday in a zero-carbon emissions sailing boat, completing her 15-day voyage from Britain to take part in a UN climate summit. 'It was a bit rough sometimes but it went incredibly well, and I didn't feel seasick, so I was extremely lucky,' she told reporters
Continue reading...Nuclear power in Australia not realistic for at least a decade, Ziggy Switkowski says
Expert who led 2006 review says ban on nuclear should be lifted, but much more overseas evidence is needed on small modular reactors
It will be about a decade before it is clear whether small nuclear reactors are suitable for Australia and would take about 15 years to bring a plant online if a decision was made to build one, one of the country’s leading experts has said.
But Ziggy Switkowski, who headed a 2006 review of nuclear power for the Howard government, said the technology had no chance of being introduced unless Australia had a coherent energy policy.
Continue reading...The winter was dry, the spring will likely be dry – here's why
Xikrin warriors battle illegal Amazon invasion – in pictures
Faced with state indifference to their plight, the indigenous community is fighting back
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