Green groups slam 'short-sighted' approval of Northumberland opencast coal mine
Council grants planning permission to controversial Druridge Bay coal mine, as campaigners vow to fight on, reports BusinessGreen Green groups have responded with outrage to the decision yesterday by Northumberland County Council to approve controversial plans for a new opencast coal mine near the Northumberland coast. The council voted in support of plans from developer […]
This election year, we can't lose sight of the perils of climate change | Ralph Nader
Candidates running for Congress and the presidency aren’t offering real solutions, despite growing scientific alarm. That is not acceptable Every election year, candidates for office engage in a perverse form of theater. Some flatter voters or try to scare them, others offer promises of a better future. Unfortunately, few candidates feel an obligation to follow […]
Water world: rising tides close in on Trump, the climate change denier
Climate change has barely registered as a 2016 campaign issue, but in Florida, the state which usually decides the presidential election, the waters are lapping at the doors of Donald Trump’s real estate empire On a hot and lazy afternoon in Palm Beach, the only sign of movement is the water gently lapping at the […]
Huge penguin colony at risk from erupting volcano
Volcanic ash threatens world’s largest colony of chinstrap penguins that are currently trapped on a small island in the sub Antarctic, say scientists One of the world’s biggest colonies of penguins is at risk from a volcano that has erupted on their small sub-Antarctic island in a British overseas territory. British scientists fear that Mt […]
Do restaurants make perfect city office spaces?
For many city restaurants, the day is a story of two halves; ultra-busy in the evening and either far quieter or closed during the day. For Preston Pesek and Chris Smothers, the contrast in activity levels represented an opportunity, one which they are working to exploit with their startup – Spacious. Empty restaurant spaces during […]
Efforts to breed rare spoon-billed sandpipers fail after chicks die
Conservationists are devastated after the first two chicks born in captivity to one of the world’s rarest birds die at a wildfowl centre in Gloucestershire An attempt to breed one of the world’s rarest birds in captivity has failed after the only two chicks which hatched died, conservationists said. Efforts to breed critically endangered spoon-billed […]
Meet the US farmers turning their tobacco into airplane fuel
As the demand for tobacco declines in the US, farmers in Virginia are experimenting with turning the crop into viable biofuel Most of the tobacco growing across 80-acres at Briar View Farms in Callands, Virginia is chosen for its flavour and high nicotine content. The leaves are hand-harvested, flue-cured or dark-fired and sold as smoking […]
Orchids paint the hill a sadder shade of pink
Wenlock Edge Each flower on the spike is a little pink cutout of a figure, perhaps an effigy of a person our news never mentions Up on the Windmill there are more pyramidal orchids than I’ve ever shaken a stick at. Singly or in stands of up to 50 in a stride, they scatter across […]
Climate change: how Victoria trumped New South Wales in the great renewable energy race
Wind and solar energy projects are set to be the big winners of the state’s ambitious renewable energy targets Two years ago Rob Stokes, the then environment minister for New South Wales, promised that his state could become Australia’s answer to California in the clean energy industry. “We are making NSW No 1 in energy […]
Threatened species face extinction owing to ‘God clause’, scientists say
Western Australia’s government is seeking the power to approve activities that could ‘take or disturb’ an endangered species Western Australia’s government could have the power to approve activities that could make a threatened species extinct, under biodiversity laws now before state parliament. The provision has been dubbed “the God clause” by scientists and conservationists, who […]