"Up to £20bn of investment in renewable energy is under threat from Liz Truss’s plans to effectively ban solar farms on agricultural land in England, the industry has warned."
How will the UN’s yearly climate treaty talks in Egypt next month touch domestic U.S. reporting? The latest Backgrounder has an outlook, with close attention to the question of compensation for nations suffering the worst impacts of global warming, plus the politics of war and energy, methane and HFCs. The prospects for action in and after Egypt.
"As Earth’s ice melts once more, heed these ancient tales of land lost to the sea."
"It wasn’t long after Henry David Inglis arrived on the island of Jersey, just northwest of France, that he heard the old story. Locals eagerly told the 19th-century Scottish travel writer how, in a bygone age, their island was much more substantial, and that folks used to walk to the French coast. The only hurdle to their journey was a river—one easily crossed using a short bridge.
Concerns about seaborne plastic waste go back decades, but science writer Juli Berwald suggests that myths and disinformation about sources and solutions continue to cloud the waters. From lentil-sized nurdles to sprawling fishing nets, 200 million tons of plastic now fill the ocean and, for her, it has become evident that the ocean plastics story is really a land story. But will the newly signed international treaty on plastics offer relief?
"Many wildlife species are thriving in Europe thanks to protection and re-introduction, a new report finds. Grey wolves, Eurasian beavers, grey seals, and European bison have seen some of the strongest recoveries in numbers and geographical range."
"The U.K. government confirmed Thursday that it’s lifting a ban on fracking in England, arguing that the move will help boost the country’s energy security amid Russia’s war in Ukraine."
"Europe’s largest river restoration is making changes across the entire landscape, bringing benefits to wildlife and people".
How water moves through the global ecosystem and shapes our landscapes is the subject of a must-read new book by writer Erica Gies, according to BookShelf editor Tom Henry. A significant part of water’s story is how humanity invariably fails when trying to manipulate it. But hope may reside with Gies’ various “water detectives,” who explore how to “let water go where it wants to go.”
"White House officials are growing increasingly alarmed about Europe’s energy crisis and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats to force a bleak winter on the continent." "Biden aides have redoubled efforts to increase natural gas exports across the Atlantic but see few obvious solutions".
