Gloom in the valley as Hazelwood fades to black | Gay Alcorn
Gay Alcorn meets the people of the Latrobe Valley facing an uncertain future as the power station that has sustained their community closes after 52 years • Snuffed out: the last days of Hazelwood power station – in pictures It could be black humour. The faded, red HAZELWOOD sign has been switched off for years […]
Snuffed out: the last days of Hazelwood power station – in pictures
The Victorian plant will close down this week after half a century of electricity generation. The brown coal-powered station supplies more than 5% of Australia’s total energy demand – but is the country’s dirtiest and least efficient power plant, producing 3% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. It will shut down entirely on 31 March […]
Desperately wanted: python hunters to tackle Florida's unwelcome intruder
Since Burmese pythons found their way into the wild in the 80s, they have decimated native wildlife. Now 150,000 could be lurking in the state’s waterways Bill Booth struggles to recall the last time he saw a raccoon, a fox or a rabbit on one of his frequent hunting excursions deep into the swamps of […]
EU greenlights Dow-DuPont mega-merger raising food security fears
Green groups say $130bn merger signals lack of choice for farmers who need more seed diversity to adapt to changing climate The EU has approved a $130bn mega-merger between Dow and DuPont, heralding a new round of agribusiness takeovers that environmentalists fear will endanger the future of sustainable food production. Brussels is widely expected to […]
12 ways to turn water from waste to resource
As 80% of the world’s wastewater flows untreated into the environment, we asked an expert panel to discuss how to promote water reuse The main message we should give is that proper reuse can save money and generate income, and is good for the environment. In the Netherlands, there is now a wastewater plant that […]
Are Devon’s road-wrecking badgers a match for the German cows who blew up a barn?
Badger tunnels under a road in Braunton have been blamed for a road collapsing. They’ve got some work to do before they belong in this rogue’s gallery of chaos-causing creatures We are destroying their homes and their kin so it was, perhaps, only a matter of time before the animals started fighting back. Until evolution […]
How ‘dockless’ bike-sharing has flooded China
Recently described as the “Uber for bikes“, the rapid growth of dockless cycle-sharing schemes in China’s cities is staggering, a story that illustrates the potential hyper-charged impact of the latest digital technologies. Guardian correspondent Nick Van Mead reports on the scene in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, a 30ft screen in the public bike […]
Barnaby Joyce wants Australia's Leadbeater's possum off endangered list to boost logging
Deputy prime minister calls for critically endangered status to be downgraded to try to save Victorian logging jobs Barnaby Joyce is pushing for the conservation status of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum to be downgraded to open up areas of protected forests in Victoria for logging, in an effort to save 250 jobs at the […]
There is no gas crisis in Australia, but there is an attack on our natural assets
Governments are using the confected gas crisis to push destructive projects like the Pilliga gas project on communities that don’t want them It’s ludicrous to say there is a gas crisis in Australia when we are set to overtake Qatar to become the world’s biggest gas producer. Australia has plenty of gas to meet our […]
In the battle for the planet's climate future, Australia's Adani mine is the line in the sand | Bill McKibben
Australians must decide whether they continue to support coal or whether the future is renewable. Without a doubt, Malcolm Turnbull will be left on the losing side There is nowhere else on the planet right now where the dichotomy between two potential futures – one where we address the climate change crisis, one where we […]