Environment news

• A ‘scare campaign’ over national parks? The fight over the future of Victoria’s forests

  27-07-2024 22:00
  
  Conservationists say the push to protect forests and endangered species with a giant national park has become mired in ‘disinformation’Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastIt’s a familiar walk for Chris Taylor to a towering mountain ash tree thought to be approximately 400 years old.The research fellow at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University has been visiting this stretch of forest, known as Victo
  
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• Australia’s north-west reefs teem with life – but they are also at the centre of a massive fossil fuel expansion

  27-07-2024 16:05
  
  Woodside’s designs on the country’s largest untapped gas basin around Scott Reef are, some say, just another example of fossil fuel companies getting their way in what has become a petrostateGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastAustralia’s next wave of fossil fuel expansion is planned for environments far from where most people will ever see it. Places like Scott Reef.Once part of an interconnected coral ecosystem that rivalled the Great Barr
  
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• Prince William could overturn king’s windfarm ban as he orders renewable energy review for estate

  27-07-2024 13:00
  
  Wind turbines are among changes being considered by heir to the Duchy of Cornwall estate to tackle the climate crisisHis father thinks windfarms are a blot on the landscape, once saying he feared Britain would end up like Denmark “knee deep in these damn things”. But now Prince William is considering overturning their effective ban on royal land.The Prince of Wales has ordered a major review of renewable energy on his 130,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate, which is expected to change
  
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• A ‘catastrophic’ start to wildfire season in Oregon sparks alarm

  27-07-2024 13:00
  
  State’s wildfires have already torched more than 1m acres, and experts say heat, dryness and lightning are to blameOregon’s wildfire season is off to an explosive start with more than 1m acres (405,000 hectares) charred in less than a month, as experts warn that extreme heat and unusual lightning strikes are creating “catastrophic conditions” for fires to ignite and spread.The state is currently home to the largest wildfire burning in the US. By Friday afternoon, the Durk
  
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• Young country diary: Sneaky seals and surprisingly small puffins | Maria

  27-07-2024 12:01
  
  Farne Islands, Northumberland: A school trip across the waves made me feel seasick, but it was worth itA gust of wind flew at me and the water soaked me, leaving a strong taste of salt on my tongue. The day was only beginning, but I was starting to feel seasick, and I was regretting my desire to be standing on a ship’s bow with the waves beneath me.No one really expected to see puffins or seals when my school announced we would be going on a boat tour, but I decided to make it my mission t
  
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• What is ‘nature’? Dictionaries urged to include humans in definition

  27-07-2024 09:00
  Defining nature as separate from people perpetuates troubled relationship with the natural world, say campaigners It was last year, during a conference at the Eden Project, the botanic garden and conservation centre in Cornwall, that Frieda Gormley first heard the dictionary definition of nature.The businesswoman and environmental activist was answering questions about her plans to appoint a representative of nature to the board of her company, House of Hackney, when a member of the audience rea
  
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• ‘A real pioneer’: King Charles seeks to embody green values in royal estate

  27-07-2024 09:00
  Changes include converting Bentleys to run on biofuels but helicopter use shows difficulties in balancing prioritiesA pair of gas-guzzling Bentleys are not the most obvious candidates to burnish the monarch’s green credentials. But news that King Charles is converting his chauffeur-driven luxury vehicles to run on biofuels was this week billed as a small step in a bigger plan to reduce emissions – perhaps the equivalent of lesser mortals separating paper from plastic in the weekly ru
  
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