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Murray-Darling basin plan fails environment and wastes money – experts
Scientists and economists issue urgent warning that $4bn plan is not improving basin health
A group of prominent scientists and economists has issued a stark warning to the nation’s politicians: the Murray-Darling basin plan is failing to achieve environmental goals and is a “gross waste” of money.
The group of seven economists and five scientists with deep expertise in the river are meeting on Monday morning in Adelaide to issue what they are calling the Murray-Darling declaration.
How Bill Gates aims to clean up the planet
It’s nothing much to look at, but the tangle of pipes, pumps, tanks, reactors, chimneys and ducts on a messy industrial estate outside the logging town of Squamish in western Canada could just provide the fix to stop the world tipping into runaway climate change and substitute dwindling supplies of conventional fuel.
It could also make Harvard superstar physicist David Keith, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and oil sands magnate Norman Murray Edwards more money than they could ever dream of.
Continue reading...Tesla to build 250MW “virtual power plant” in South Australia
Adani coalmine won't get federal rail funding, Liberal minister says
Concessional $900m loan cannot proceed without Queensland government approval, Karen Andrews says
The Adani Carmichael coalmine will not receive federal funding from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility for a vital rail line, a Turnbull government minister has said.
The announcement by Karen Andrews on Sunday is a major blow to Adani, which has sought a $900m concessional loan for rail to link the Carmichael mine to port – and could spell the end of the project entirely if it can’t secure private finance.
Continue reading...Country diary: laying our friend to rest in the woods
Boduan, Pwllheli: A woodland burial reminds us that nature is the mirror and foundation for every resurrection myth
My dear old friend loved birds. They brought her joy. I’d spent many peaceful hours in her garden room, keeping her company, watching the nuthatches, woodpeckers, goldfinches and siskins at her bird table during these recent years of illness patiently borne. She died in the last minutes of the old year, at the age of 88. A woodland burial was arranged at Boduan Sanctuary. Waxy-white clumps of snowdrops reflected in the hearse’s paintwork as she left her home for the last time.
At the sanctuary wood’s car park we lifted her into a sturdy rustic cart with iron-rimmed wheels. On the narrow path into the wood, one of these ran over my foot. I imagined the quip this lively, humorous woman would have lanced my way, and changed position to push from the back. We held straps to lower her into the grave, and as we did so the sun’s barred rays threaded through the trees, traversed her wicker coffin, and illuminated the moss and the pale trunks of the silver birches.
Continue reading...Mayan surprise
Green Brexit, air pollution ultimatum and a lonely gannet – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...Design call for 'solar sentinel' mission
Green Brexit is impossible to guarantee, say Tory MEPs
Exclusive: Leaked document says it will be impossible to ensure current environmental and food safety standards are kept in Britain or the EU
Conservative MEPs have said Brexit will make it “impossible” to guarantee that current environmental standards can be maintained in Britain or the EU.
A leaked document seen by the Guardian also calls for “the closest possible working relationship” between the EU and UK after Brexit, and for a “no regression clause” in future British trade deals.
Continue reading...Bones clue to 'lost' Viking army which made England
Are we stuck with plastic drinking straws?
Fossil from south Wales named as new reptile species
The week in wildlife – in pictures
Golden monkeys, whooper swans and a giant tortoise are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Almost four environmental defenders a week killed in 2017
Exclusive: 197 people killed last year for defending land, wildlife or natural resources, new data reveals. In recording every defender’s death, the Guardian hopes to raise awareness of the deadly struggle on the environmental frontline
The slaughter of people defending their land or environment continued unabated in 2017, with new research showing almost four people a week were killed worldwide in struggles against mines, plantations, poachers and infrastructure projects.
The toll of 197 in 2017 – which has risen fourfold since it was first compiled in 2002 – underscores the violence on the frontiers of a global economy driven by expansion and consumption.
Former national monuments shrunk by Trump to be opened for mining claims
Presidential order reduced protections for land once part of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments
Hundreds of thousands of acres of land that were part of two US national monuments shrunk by Donald Trump are being opened Friday to mining claims for uranium and other minerals.
It is a symbolic step in a broader conflict over the fate of America’s public lands, on which Trump hopes to encourage greater access for extractive industries.
Continue reading...New Zealand gannet 'no mates Nigel' dies alongside fake partner
Nigel the lonely gannet surrounded by concrete birds on Mana Island – video
Nigel the lonely gannet, who spent much of his time surrounded by concrete birds on Mana island, has died. Conservation officers lured Nigel to the island off New Zealand with the imitation gannets in the hope of encouraging a colony to settle on the reserve
Continue reading...Volcanic eruptions in Guatemala captured in time-lapse video
Wildlife on your doorstep: share your February photos
As 2018 enters its second month we’d like to see your photos of the wildlife you’ve discovered where you live
What sort of wildlife will we all discover on our doorsteps this month? We’d like to see your photos of the February wildlife near you, whether you’re a novice spotter or have been out and about searching forcreatures great and small for years.
Related: Has spring come early where you live? Share your pictures
Continue reading...Country diary: where sparrows go when they vanish at dusk
Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: Trying to find enough shelter to keep warm and conserve energy without increasing the risk of attack is a juggling act for a small bird
The torchlight cut through the dark, searching the canopy of a tall cedar as it swayed in the last gusts of the storm. A splash of white 15 metres up caught my attention: bird droppings, bright against the dark bark. Just above it, a wood pigeon was resting cosily against a jackdaw. A cock pheasant turned its head to observe me, that russet and red enhanced by the torch beam.
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