Coalition colleagues urge Malcolm Turnbull to head off energy crisis
Prime minister told to adopt a domestic gas reservation policy to deal with forecast LNG shortages The prime minister is under mounting internal pressure to adopt a domestic gas reservation policy to deal with forecast shortages. The chairman of the government’s backbench committee on energy and the environment, Craig Kelly, has said it is something […]
Anti-fracking protesters take government to court in Lancashire
Activists will challenge permission granted to Cuadrilla for test fracking sites near Blackpool as pressure mounts over the cost of policing the protests The government will go to court this week to defend test drilling at a fracking site in Lancashire as it comes under pressure to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to cover […]
Rising numbers of great white sharks headed toward Cape Cod, scientists say
Figure rises for second consecutive year, says Massachusetts’ top shark expert, warning of ‘public safety issue’ despite no deaths in state’s waters since 1936 Great white sharks are swimming toward the waters off Massachusetts in rising numbers, scientists say, after a second consecutive year showing an increase in predators to Cape Cod. The latest data […]
Green Investment Bank sell-off racks up at least £1m in fees
MPs condemn ‘waste of money’ as documents show controversial £2bn privatisation has cost taxpayers at least £1m in banking and legal fees The troubled £2bn privatisation of the Green Investment Bank has already cost at least £1m of taxpayer money in consultancy fees, official documents have revealed. Ministers have promised that the sale of the […]
Elon Musk plan to fix South Australia energy crisis 'exciting' but needs work, says Labor
Tesla boss says he is ‘impressed’ after speaking to South Australian premier Jay Weatherill about plan Labor says there is still a way to go before Tesla boss Elon Musk’s “exciting” proposal to fix South Australia’s energy crisis can become reality. The entrepreneur has pledged to install the batteries needed to prevent ongoing blackouts in […]
The farming revolution that aims to bring free-range milk to Britain
Smallholders hope to reverse years of dairy industry decline with a return to cows grazing in the great outdoors This is a story that is almost as rare as a free-range cow: a good news story about the British dairy industry. This month, Jenni and Jerry Hobbs will swing open the gates to the yard […]
The top 10 threats to the most biodiverse place on planet Earth
Manu national park in Peru threatened by roads, oil/gas operations, narco trade, goldmining, logging and ‘human safaris’ Just under half of Unesco’s World Heritage sites are under threat, the WWF asserts. Sites deemed threatened include the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Pantanal in Brazil and the Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of […]
Gaggle of Cambridge University students criticise geese-cull plans
Rapidly growing Canada goose population is health hazard but quarter of King’s students sign petition to spare the birds It’s been an exasperating week for Philip Isaac, domus bursar at King’s College, Cambridge University. It all started with an impassioned letter from students which, invoking the words of Gandhi, called for the peaceful coexistence of […]
Conservatives cheer EPA cuts that activists fear 'will be borne by lungs'
Trump administration’s zeal for deregulation seen by environmentalists as a recipe for fossil fuel cronyism, runaway climate change and toxic water crises Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, caused conniptions among scientists this week by claiming that carbon dioxide isn’t the primary catalyst of global warming. Conservative groups and industry, on the other […]
Panic on the machair as a predator approaches
South Uist Though we cannot see the hunters their presence is signalled by the waders that suddenly rise in flocks Far in the distance the craggy peaks of Skye have been rendered Alpine-like by the overnight snow. Away to the north the high hills of Harris also bear a covering, and even South Uist’s less […]