Feed aggregator

The Wye is being killed by toxic industrial chicken factories along its banks. Such disasters are happening all over the UK

The longer this goes on, the deeper the mystery becomes. It’s as if the public authorities had set out to destroy an entire region’s economy. Last year, a group of us tried to raise the profile of an astonishing scandal: the impending collapse of one of the most treasured and “protected” rivers in Europe, the Wye, which flows through Wales and England. We showed how chicken factories in the catchment are turning this beautiful river and its tributaries into open sewers.

The two county councils through which the river mostly flows, Powys and Herefordshire, have between them granted planning permission for giant steel barns (factories, in reality) that contain an estimated 20m birds. Many were approved on the grounds that they would probably have no significant environmental impact. Amazingly, at no point was the cumulative impact considered: every decision was taken as if in isolation.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Continue reading...

South Korean CO2 allowances on Friday fell to their lowest level in nearly a year as traders sold off excess permits ahead of the compliance deadline in order to maximise the amount of units they can bank to next year.

The allowance price in China’s national emissions trading scheme remained unchanged again this week, but trading activity stalled as market participants said newly announced changes in allocation regulations spurred further bearish sentiment.

Governments not listening to people with disabilities despite them being at high risk, say researchers

People with disabilities are being “systematically ignored” by governments around the world when it comes to the climate crisis, even though they are particularly at risk from the impacts of extreme weather, research has shown.

Few countries make provisions for the needs of people with disabilities when they make plans for adapting to the effects of climate breakdown, and none mention disabled people in their programmes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the first comprehensive review of the issue.

Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a new iguana, a nesting weaver and a rare albino giant tortoise

Continue reading...

A South Korean asset manager is in the process of setting up what is thought to be the nation’s first large-scale fund for the international voluntary carbon market.

Extracting the chemical used in fertilisers from waste rather than mining it could also help reduce pollution

Sewage could provide a novel way of helping consumers with soaring food bills and reducing pollution in our waterways – if sewage plants separated out phosphorus, a vital ingredient of fertiliser, according to a new report.

Phosphorus, found naturally in all plants, is essential for growing plants but its use as a fertiliser is creating widespread pollution in developed countries, because much of it is wasted. Phosphorus is a leading cause of water pollution, as the runoff from fertiliser use in fields produces an excess of nutrients that upset the natural balance of rivers and ponds, leading to algae blooms that harm fish and plants.

Continue reading...

US wildlife agency agrees to review protection for habitats after conservationists sue over mass die-offs from poor water quality

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed to update critical habitat protections for manatees after legal pressure from environmental groups, as the animals continue to die in record numbers.

More than 1,000 manatees died in Florida last year, wiping out more than 10% of the state’s population, the deadliest year on record. The unusually high mortality rate for the threatened mammals has continued into 2022, with 562 deaths in the first five months.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Study finds people have ‘astonishing’ levels of compounds thought to disrupt hormones

A cocktail of chemical pollutants measured in people’s bodies has been linked to falling semen quality by new research.

Chemicals such as bisphenols and dioxins are thought to interfere with hormones and damage sperm quality, and the study found combinations of these compounds are present at “astonishing” levels, up to 100 times those considered safe.

Continue reading...

Queensland starts search for new pumped hydro site as part of plans to seek 7GW of capacity in the state to support switch to renewables.

The post Queensland starts search for new pumped hydro, seeks 7GW of storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Already critically endangered, the southern bent-wing bat is still declining in a drying climate. If we don’t step in, it will likely be extinct within three generations of bat. Emmi van Harten, Lecturer in Ecology, La Trobe University Lindy Lumsden, Principal Research Scientist, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Thomas Prowse, Postdoctoral research fellow, School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Adelaide Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

As Love Island contestants get dressed in second-hand clothes, can fashion ever be eco-friendly?

Leading economists blow a hole through the main tool used to produce the slow net-zero scenarios embraced by climate policymakers.

The post Slow 2050 net-zero scenarios not worth the paper they’re written on, say economists appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Sellers simply call ivory by other names including 'bovine bone', investigation shows.

In our third Energy Transformed podcast we look at the data and digitisation challenges emerging from energy transition and whether current laws are fit for purpose.

The post Energy Transformed Podcast: The future of energy systems – digital and data challenges appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Delays in the government-funded Snowy 2.0 could have big impact on timing of coal plant closures and shape of energy policy.

The post Bowen slams Morrison and Taylor for hiding extent of Snowy 2.0 delays appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Are you passionate about wanting to address the global climate crisis by working with a company at the forefront of developing carbon removal technology? Are you ready to take your career to the next level as our Carbon Markets Development Lead?

The Carbon Value Chain Expert will be part of LDC’s rapidly evolving Carbon Solutions Platform in a challenging regulatory, legal and high-profile environments, requiring innovation and capability to build effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders and network with organizations, carbon standards, consultants and other key players / stakeholders within the LDC Americas environmental markets to support and drive the expansion of the Global Carbon Solutions Platform at LDC.

The Carbon Originator will be working in LDC’s rapidly evolving Carbon Solutions business line in challenging regulatory, legal and high-profile environments, requiring innovation and capability to build effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders and network with organizations, registries, consultants and other key players / stakeholders within the LDC Brasilia environmental markets to support and drive the establishment of a leading environmental platform at LDC in Sao Paulo.