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A major scorecard gives the health of Australia's environment less than 1 out of 10
Spanish emissions set to drop further as govt closes ‘non-essential’ businesses to fight coronavirus
'Probably the worst year in a century': the environmental toll of 2019
The annual Australia’s Environment report finds last year’s heat and drought caused unprecedented damage
Record heat and drought across Australia delivered the worst environmental conditions across the country since at least 2000, with river flows, tree cover and wildlife being hit on an “unprecedented scale”, according to a new report.
The index of environmental conditions in Australia scored 2019 at 0.8 out of 10 – the worst result across all the years analysed from 2000.
Continue reading...Endangered sea turtles hatch on Brazil's deserted beaches
Coronavirus keeps crowds that usually greet hatching of hawksbill turtles away
Nearly 100 critically endangered sea turtles have hatched on a deserted beach in Brazil, their first steps going almost unnoticed because of coronavirus restrictions that prohibit people from gathering on the region’s sands.
The 97 hawksbill sea turtles, or tartarugas-de-pente as they are known in Brazil, were born last Sunday in Paulista, a town in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco.
Continue reading...UK wildlife enjoys humans' lockdown but concerns raised over conservation
Animals are getting some peace and people are reconnecting with nature, but wildlife crimes may be going unnoticed
Moles are daring to clamber above ground to hunt for worms, oystercatchers are nesting on deserted beaches, and overlooked plants such as ivy-leaved toadflax are gaining new friends.
The shutdown of modern life as we know it is liberating British wildlife to enjoy newly depopulated landscapes. But conservationists say the impact is not all positive, with wildlife crimes going unreported and vital work including monitoring unable to be carried out.
Continue reading...Covid-19 could stop new Australia wind and solar projects, wipe out global growth
The global Covid-19 pandemic is expected to hit planned wind and solar projects in Australia and other countries particularly hard, and wipe out any anticipated growth in renewables deployment in 2020, according to a new study. The Norway-based Rystad Energy says it had expected global solar additions to grow 15% to 140 gigawatts in 2020,...
The post Covid-19 could stop new Australia wind and solar projects, wipe out global growth appeared first on RenewEconomy.
You know change is in the air when the likes of Ashley and Martin back down
Strange things happen in a crisis. For one, it can dawn on Mike Ashley that pretending that a sports shop is an essential public service is absurd. Friday’s apology from the Sports Direct founder seemed to be more about communication – “ill-judged and poorly timed” emails to overworked government ministers – than his original ludicrous attempt to keep his shops open, but it was still an uncharacteristic climbdown.
Even JD Wetherspoon’s Tim Martin, who has never previously appeared to give a damn what anyone thinks, paused to consider he may have made a mistake. Having announced staff would only be paid until the moment the pubs were shut, he then said they would get their wages at the next payroll date provided the government agreed a reimbursement scheme in time.
Continue reading...Coronavirus: What we still don't know about Covid-19
Fruit and veg ‘will run out’ unless Britain charters planes to fly in farm workers from eastern Europe
UK urgently needs to fill 90,000 positions to pick crops that will otherwise die in the fields, warns charity
Charter flights to bring in agricultural workers from eastern Europe are needed as a matter of urgency, otherwise fruit and vegetables will be left unpicked in Britain’s fields, the government is being warned.
Some large farms have already been chartering planes to bring in labour from eastern Europe. But farming organisations and recruitment agencies say that, in the face of massive disruption to the agricultural sector caused by the spread of the coronavirus, the government needs to step in and help organise more flights.
Continue reading...More than 100,000 badgers slaughtered in discredited cull policy
Badger Trust condemns ‘largest destruction of a protected species in living memory’ as government admits failings and focuses on vaccination
More than 35,000 badgers were killed during last year’s cull, according to long overdue figures slipped out by the government on Friday at the height of the coronavirus crisis.
The total has dismayed animal rights campaigners, who claim that for the first time since the cull was introduced in 2013, more badgers were shot last year than cattle were slaughtered because they have bovine-TB.
Continue reading...Coronavirus: OneWeb blames pandemic for collapse
Wildlife rescue centres struggle to treat endangered species in coronavirus outbreak
Shortages in funds, medicines and masks threaten charity work around the world
Last Thursday morning Louisa Baillie drove down the five-kilometre dirt track that connects her jungle home in the Amazon rainforest to the main road. At the junction, she parked, hiking the rest of the way into Mera, a town of about 8,000 people.
After filling her backpack with fruit and vegetables from local sellers, she grabbed some leaves and set about plucking termites off trees along the roadside, stuffing them into a bucket containing small fragments of the insects’ nests. Baillie works as a veterinarian at Merazonia, a wildlife rescue centre in Ecuador. The termites were dinner for Andy the anteater, a baby recently confiscated at a police checkpoint.
Continue reading...Heirloom plants: Saving the nation's seeds from extinction
CP Daily: Friday March 27, 2020
Speculators’ CCA position craters after liquidation while compliance holdings rise, data shows
US EPA extends RFS compliance deadline for small refiners, citing coronavirus
The week in wildlife – in pictures
The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including oryx, a slow loris, bears – and a puma on the streets of Santiago, Chile
Continue reading...The Guardian view on empty supermarket shelves: panic is not the problem
The coronavirus pandemic is beginning to expose the fragility of our food system. But will we choose long-term solutions or short-term fixes?
Until a couple of weeks ago, the idea of waiting in an Ocado queue of 73,735 shoppers, or of supermarkets rationing milk and baked beans, would have sounded like satire. For too many people in the UK, food scarcity is the norm, with mothers and fathers going hungry to ensure their children are fed. But others have grown used to an absurd abundance: strawberries and peaches in midwinter, or 20 types of mustard alongside three score of pasta. When such bounty overflows, it seems self-evident that supplies are both plentiful and reliable – until suddenly they aren’t.
In fact, warns Tim Lang in his new book, Feeding Britain, our food system is “stretched, open to disruption and far from resilient”. It is easy to castigate panic buyers for empty shelves. But while shopping responsibly will help others to get the food they need, only a few people are squirrelling away vast stocks. Research firm Kantar says the average spend per supermarket trip has risen by 16% to £22.13 month on month – not surprising when households realised they were likely to need lunches at home, including for children no longer in school, and could have to self-isolate for a fortnight.
Continue reading...California grid experiencing shift in electricity demand amid COVID-19 outbreak
Coronavirus: Lockdowns continue to suppress European pollution
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