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George Monbiot criticised ‘chefs and foodies’ like me for focusing on regenerative grazing. But alternative, lab-grown foods, could have terrible consequences

I have huge admiration for George Monbiot, a columnist of this newspaper. His work has highlighted the urgent need to reduce our CO2 emissions and switch to greener energy. He has also shown intensive farming’s role in the dramatic levels of species decline and biodiversity loss. Much of what he writes I wholeheartedly agree with – but when it comes to the solutions we need to change our farming and food systems, we have radically different takes.

It is indisputable that the farming “revolution” of the 1950s, with its widespread use of ammonia fertilisers and herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, has waged war on nature. These intensive, monocultural ways of producing food are not only contaminating our land and waterways, but are heating up our planet and contributing to a crisis in human health (more people die of diet-related disease globally than smoking, according to a study published in the Lancet). The animals in factory farms don’t have a great time either. The decline of insect life is incredibly worrying: without the earthworm, beetle and bee, life as we know it could cease. Topsoils, which we use to grow 95% of the world’s food, are depleting at an astonishing rate. We need to change the way we eat and produce food, and we need to do it quickly.

Thomasina Miers is a cook, writer and restaurateur

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A joint venture (JV) led by Australian oil and gas operator Woodside has been awarded a permit for the potential development of an offshore CO2 storage site in Western Australia, it announced on Thursday.

By embracing renewables, Australia's miners could lead the world in extracting "green minerals" needed to power global decarbonisation.

The post Australian miners seen in top spot to lead global sector green appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Is carbon capture and storage a realistic climate solution, or a subsidy harvesting exercise to extend the life of fossil fuel assets? We review 13 projects to find out.

The post Carbon capture remains a risky investment for achieving decarbonisation  appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia's energy market rule maker has bowed to pressure to lift price caps on the wholesale electricity prices in one of the biggest reforms to the market in years.

The post Energy price caps lifted in major market shift to accommodate expensive fossil fuels appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Highly commended images from the wildlife photographer of the year contest. Winners will be announced on 11 October and an exhibition of the 100 award-winning shots will open at the Natural History Museum on 14 October

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The technology, put forward as part of the UK’s net zero strategy, could extend the life of fossil fuel infrastructure

Carbon capture and storage schemes, a key plank of many governments’ net zero plans, “is not a climate solution”, the author of a major new report on the technology has said.

Researchers for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found underperforming carbon capture projects considerably outnumbered successful ones by large margins.

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Prices in France and Germany and across Europe have again jumped to unprecedented levels thanks to soaring cost of gas and massive nuclear shortfalls.

The post Gas prices and nuclear outages put European grid at breaking point appeared first on RenewEconomy.

AEMO's latest assessment of reliability generated the predictable "blackout" headlines, but the details tell another story.

The post The strangely invisible energy projects that led to all those “blackout” headlines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Extreme weather conditions in China starts to have impact on solar and battery supply chains, plus all the local news.

The post Solar Insiders Podcast: China drought to hit solar, battery supplies appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Electric vehicles were around long before their fossil fuel rivals. They are also set to outlast them because of advantages their advocates noted as early as a century ago. Timothy Minchin, Professor of History, La Trobe University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Australia's emissions jumped again, and scientists are not happy with new oil exploration acreage and Labor minister's description of CO2 as "bubbles in your soda water."

The post “Bubbles in your soda water:” How Labor justifies LNG boom behind emissions jump appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Researchers unveil new battery made from abundant, low-cost materials that could compete with lithium-ion to support the shift to renewable energy.

The post Is an aluminium-sulphur battery the way out of the lithium quagmire? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The deputy Liberal leader has been taken to task over the ‘totally wrong, wholly incorrect’ claim that no one is making electric utes

Once upon a time in the former Morrison government, policies to promote electric cars were going to “end the weekend”, while the vehicles themselves wouldn’t be able to tow your boat or trailer.

Now in opposition and with Scott Morrison consigned to the backbench, the Liberal party’s deputy leader, Sussan Ley, has continued the EV bashing.

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We’ve survived the most wretched season in years. Now everything will be beautiful once more

Well, we did it. Winter is finally dead. And, unlike when a real person dies, we don’t have to pretend there was anything good about it.

Goodbye, winter, a friendless season for losers. I mean this in the rudest possible terms, but particularly this year. Winter is a season for losers and a season for loss. It forces us to become worse versions of ourselves, taking us away from our friends and offering us nothing in return except the opportunity to complete our evening walks on hard mode. Meanwhile, everyone interesting immediately flees for summer in other parts of the world, which draws me into a blood feud with them.

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Kinder Scout, where walkers famously staked their claim to the countryside, grows by over 500 acres.

Push for moratorium on offsets comes as NSW’s scheme found to have no strategy for ensuring protection of environment

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The Greens have called for all environmental offsets schemes across the country to be suspended pending an independent review, after the New South Wales system was found to be riddled with integrity concerns and failing to protect endangered species.

It puts the minor party at odds with the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, who planned to use a speech on Thursday to argue that well-designed environmental markets, including those using offsets, could be a “powerful force for good”. She said she hoped Australia may one day be home to a “green Wall Street” that attracted conservation investment from around the world.

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Mystery and wonder in this year's shortlisted images for Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

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