VEN – Good News on Climate Action – Blog

RHS fears non-native fungi could alter microbiology of soil when grown in gardens or disposed of in compost heaps Helena HortonEnvironment reporter in The Guardian Fri 31 May 2024   A boom in the popularity of mushroom-growing at home could lead to a biodiversity disaster, UK garden experts have warned. There has been a rise…

Oh what a feeling! Toyota petrol cars end of the road By Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson Updated June 5 2024 in The Canberra Times Toyota says its petrol vehicles will be retired in favour of hybrid models due to demand (Supplied by Toyota Australia/AAP PHOTOS) Nine popular vehicles will no longer be sold as petrol cars in…

The ultimate path to zero-emission cement may be recycled cement By linking the recycling of two carbon-intensive materials—cement and steel—researchers have hit upon a breakthrough that dramatically cuts the climate impact of both. By Sarah DeWeerdt June 4, 2024 In Anthropocene A newly developed method to recycle cement could yield a billion metric tons yearly…

06/06/2024 Ajit Niranjan in The Guardian Voters may deal Green parties a blow that costs them up to one-third of their seats, if polls before this week’s European elections prove correct, in a shift that could lead to a rollback of climate policies with the effects rippling far beyond the continent. At first glance, the…

‘The industry is rapidly strangling our planet,’ says Andrew Wilkie, who joins Allegra Spender, Sophie Scamps, Zali Steggall and Monique Ryan in call for ban Adam Morton and Graham Readfearn Thu 6 Jun 2024 in The Guardian At least nine independent MPs and the Greens have backed the UN secretary general’s call for the Australian…

What drives consumers to more sustainable meat? Ironically, it isn’t telling them it’s sustainable. A new large scale European survey found that animal welfare credentials were consistently more persuasive than environmental credentials. By Emma Bryce in Anthropocene May 31, 2024 The emotive power of animal welfare is more likely to make people eat sustainably, than…

Q. Which is the greener building material, fungus or concrete? A. It depends on the electricity source. There’s always more to a new material than meets the eye. By Anthropocene Team May 30, 2024 Buildings account for 40 percent of global energy demand and a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions today. There is…

‘It’s all we have’: young climate activists on the state of politics around the world With elections affecting half the world’s population this year, campaigners offer their views on the chances of real change. Damian Carrington and Damien Gayle Sun 2 Jun 2024 in the Guardian This year elections are taking place across the globe,…

And she called for the money to be sent directly to the world’s most climate-vulnerable people. ARIELLE SAMUELSON APR 24, 2024 in Heated For the first time, the world’s most powerful countries are considering a proposal that would tax the super rich and send the money directly to the people on the front lines of…

No need for countries to issue new oil, gas or coal licences, study finds Researchers say world has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet demand forecasts to 2050 if net zero is reached Jillian Ambrose Energy correspondent Guardian Fri 31 May 2024  The world has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet global energy…

Tue 28 May 2024 15.00 AEST No Tory MPs voted positively on climate issues since party took power, study finds Labour and Liberal Democrats dominated list of MPs who were rated as very good in backing environmental policies Fiona Harvey Environment editor in the Guardian Only a single sitting Conservative was rated as “good” on…

With fossil fuel investment doubling, does your super fund top the ‘climate wreckers’ list? Australian super funds are expanding instead of shrinking their investment in fossil fuels, despite boasting of their zero emissions targets, new research shows. Investment in clean energy companies has shrunk, decreasing by half a billion dollars over the last two years,…

in the Guardian: OpinionClimate crisis Humanity’s survival is still within our grasp – just. But only if we take these radical steps David King In 2008, the late American climate scientist Wally Broecker warned of the global repercussions of polar ice loss. Today, his predictions echo louder than ever as Greenland ice haemorrhages at an…

DAILY SCIENCE in Anthropocene magazine First continental scale study weighs floating solar panels against new dam construction The conclusion: floating solar could negate the need for many—if not all—planned dams in Africa, and add climate change resilience at the same time. By Sarah DeWeerdt May 7, 2024 Floating solar panels on existing hydropower reservoirs could,…

Extreme weather is coming for your house. Passive energy retrofits can save lives. A new study finds that simple retrofits can increase the time a building stays safe from 2 to 42 hours in a winter storm and from 12 to 37 in a heat wave By Anthropocene Team May 16, 2024 Extreme weather is…

abc news 23 may 2024 In short: An international court has ruled carbon dioxide is an ocean pollutant. The case was brought by nine island states seeking better protection from climate change. In its expert advice, the court ruled countries had an obligation to mitigate the effect of carbon dioxide on the world’s oceans. A…

Josh Nicholas and Nick Evershed Fri 24 May 2024 01.00 AEST in Guardian Electricity from nuclear power would cost Australia significantly more than generating it from solar and wind, according to the CSIRO. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has revived the idea of Australia lifting its restriction on nuclear power, but has yet to provide…

In Fort Mohave, Arizona, even Republican voters are fighting gas power plants as utilities try to lock in fossil fuels Nina Lakhani in The Guardian 23/05/2024 Early one morning in April I set off from Phoenix, Arizona and drove 250 miles north-west, across one of the sunniest desert expanses in the United States, to meet…