UK government spent £105,000 in legal fees on lost air pollution case
Government is wasting time and taxpayers’ money as it faces a second court challenge over illegal air pollution, say green lawyers The government spent at least £105,000 in legal costs while fighting and losing a court challenge over illegal levels of air pollution, according to data released through freedom of information rules, and now faces […]
Canada wildfire – what are the environmental impacts?
In addition to the estimated $9bn damage to Fort McMurray, ‘the beast’ will affect forests, carbon emissions, air and water pollution and waste The explosive wildfire in Canada’s tar sands region that forced 90,000 people to flee last week is still burning. By Tuesday, “the beast” had grown to 230,000 hectares, but had moved into […]
UN climate science chief: it's not too late to avoid dangerous temperature rise
Hoesung Lee, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, voices hope in battle against 2C increase in warming but warns of ‘phenomenal’ costs The head of the United Nations climate science panel has declared it is still possible to avoid a dangerous 2C increase in global warming – despite more than a dozen record […]
Lake District road reopens after five months of misery
Cumbrians see length of time it has taken to repair crucial A591 link after floods as proof of lack of government interest Its loss has cost businesses 60% of their trade, separated children from their schools and cut the Lake District in half. But five months after floods destroyed one of Cumbria’s key thoroughfares, the […]
Coal made its best case against climate change, and lost | Dana Nuccitelli
A Minnesota judge found the preponderance of evidence did not favor coal industry climate science denial Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private sector coal company (now bankrupt), recently faced off against environmental groups in a Minnesota court case. The case was to determine whether the State of Minnesota should continue using its exceptionally low established […]
We are mortgaging the future by scrapping zero-carbon home rules | Angus MacNeil
The UK government’s failure to build new homes that are energy efficient will see future generations dealing with our costly mistakes From the Forth Bridge to our sewer system and the London Underground, we still rely on Victorian engineering every day in modern Britain. We all benefit from this inherited infrastructure, but we’re still paying […]
Fort McMurray wildfire cuts Canada's oil output by a third
Blaze that partly destroyed city has temporarily shut down Alberta’s oil sands production – a mainstay of the country’s petroleum industry A wildfire that partly destroyed the city of Fort McMurray has cut Canada’s oil output by as much as a third after forcing the oil sands industry to effectively shut down in the province […]
CSIRO climate scientists earmarked for redundancy to finally learn their fate
Staff given two weeks to explain why their jobs should be saved, followed by a two-month process in which management tries to find them another role Climate scientists at the CSIRO who are earmarked for redundancy will learn their fate this week. Staff in the organisation’s oceans and atmosphere business unit began being told of […]
Water management flawed owing to vastly underestimated drought risk, study finds
Thousand-year rainfall record shows weather in New South Wales over the past 100 years has been unusually stable and absent of mega droughts Drought and flood risk in New South Wales is vastly underestimated, with weather in the past 100 years being unusually stable, according to a detailed reconstruction of rainfall over a NSW catchment […]
Fossil fuel register shows more than a third of Australia earmarked for coal or gas
Interactive map commissioned by Lock the Gate shows fossil fuel claims cover 37% of Australia’s landmass More than a third of Australia’s landmass is earmarked for coal or gas, according to a new analysis and interactive map commissioned by the community group Lock the Gate. No single register of fossil fuel exploration and extraction licences […]