https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/06/five-outlandish-plans-to-remodel-earth-climate
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Dealing with Climate Change & Justice
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Posted 2 months ago #
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Food shortages could hit the UK within five years as a result of the collapse of overseas ecosystems, according to the report
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Posted 2 months ago # -
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Britain’s biggest community solar project has been forced to shut for the duration of its first summer by the government’s energy system operator to avoid overloading the local grid with renewable energy.
The north Devon solar farm was ordered to shut weeks before record high temperatures across Europe led to power supply warnings, due to concerns that the large amount of rooftop solar in the area could destabilise the power grid by triggering a “thermal overload”.
The shutdown is expected to cost the cooperative scheme’s nearly 10,000 members about £2m in lost revenue before it is allowed to restart again in September.
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Posted 2 months ago # -
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The government’s plan to protect and restore nature in England by 2030 has been condemned as “pathetic” and “completely insufficient” in the face of the spiralling environmental crisis.The long-awaited plan published on Monday calls for landowners to voluntarily opt to protect and enhance nature, rather than creating legal protections for nature across more of the country’s land, critics say.
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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Great Britain’s grid operator has brought in independent investigators to look into accusations that its staff were involved in a cover-up over the power system being at a greater risk of blackouts during the heatwave.The government-owned energy system operator will face the scrutiny of an external legal firm after a whistleblower claimed that control room staff were warned against leaving a paper trail relating to efforts to stabilise the power system during record high temperatures in late June.
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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Heat Ready London Adapting the city to a warmer climate
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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While nearly all English councils say they intend to include green infrastructure in new housing developments – such as trees that can cool streets or provision of access to waterways – only about a quarter of them use a recognised tool that would ensure this.
“This is a matter of life and death,” said Celia Davis, interim director of operations at the TCPA. “We need to avoid building death traps.”
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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Andy Burnham is considering radical plans that could cut household energy bills by £130 a year and make running a heat pump cheaper than a gas boiler.
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https://www.theguardian.com/money/2026/jul/18/andy-burnham-cut-energy-bills-gas-heat-pumps
Posted 1 month ago # -
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Climate campaigners have declared a victory after the Bank of England said it would no longer accept bonds linked to one of the most polluting industries on the planet for key loan arrangements.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/19/bank-of-england-bonds-coal-loans-assets
Posted 1 month ago # -
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Matthew said: “Setting the 2030 clean power target was less about meeting the target than setting turbo boosters under the clean economy to get lift-off – which [Miliband] has achieved with record levels of renewables contracts and reforms to massively speed up deployment. This is critical to economic growth, reindustrialisation, energy security and, yes, bringing down bills. This is an energy revolution which is now inevitable and no amount of grumbling by the politicians and media barons funded by fossil fuel interests can reverse it.”
Now Miliband has moved beyond the energy department to the Foreign Office. He has always had an eye on the global aspects of this transition, acting as a powerful voice at climate summits and arguing for change. He will bring his climate knowledge and undoubted energies to bear on this role.
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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The UK will not have enough water for future datacentres, the water industry has said in stark criticism of the government’s AI growth plans.
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Posted 1 month ago # -
Village community garden is severely water stressed. Local burn drying up. One pump broke as too much grit in it (?) Moved 600 litres quite quickly on Urban Arrow. Too far for a long hose btw!
Posted 1 month ago # -
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But Harry says his ire isn’t directed towards vulnerable people who can still use their hosepipes. Instead, he blames water companies – which, according to water regulator Ofwat, lose almost 3bn litres of drinking water a day in England and Wales through leaking pipes. That’s five times more than even a nationwide hosepipe ban could save, says Greenpeace UK.
Another thing guzzling our water supplies is the rise of AI, which Harry also hit out against. There are 450-plus AI datacentres in the UK, with more planned, which require enormous amounts of water to cool servers. On Tuesday, the water industry warned that these plans were “fatally flawed” as the policies make “not a single mention of water”. Water UK said that more than two-thirds of existing datacentres are in the south and south-east of England, where many of the hosepipe bans are in place. The Government Digital Sustainability Alliance, a public-private group led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has already warned that AI is predicted to lead to an increase in global water usage from 1.1bn to 6.6bn cubic metres by 2027 – in other words, equivalent to more than half of the UK’s total water usage. “Is it really gardeners at fault?” Harry says.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/23/how-hosepipe-ban-got-caught-up-in-culture-war
Posted 1 month ago # -
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In her first 48 hours as energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh was left in no doubt about the thorny policy decision at the top of her in-tray. Protesters from Fossil Free London met her outside her new offices dressed as firefighters holding placards reading: “We’re already putting out fires, don’t start new ones.”
The MP for Peckham – a radical economist who is outspoken about the climate crisis – is a surprising choice as secretary of state for energy and net zero for those who believe the speculation in Westminster that Andy Burnham wants to approve new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
Protesters outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on Wednesday were taking no chances on whether the rumours were correct, demanding in full voice that the new energy secretary scrap all new drilling.
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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Britain’s foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, is to indicate he will put the climate crisis and overseas development at the heart of UK international relations by taking up the country’s seat on the board at the World Bank.
The position, which is usually delegated to a junior minister, means Miliband will play an active role in shaping the changes to the World Bank that developing countries have called for, and ensuring the climate remains a core focus for overseas aid.
Miliband, who was energy and net zero secretary under Keir Starmer, will say: “International development is not an add-on to British foreign policy – it is central to it. By taking on the role of UK governor to the World Bank, I want to send an unambiguous signal that this government is serious about its global leadership on development and climate.”
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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Pedro Sánchez says Spain is suffering effects of climate crisis as firefighters battle wildfires in France
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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PM urged to uphold climate pledges made as mayor and ban new North Sea oil drilling
Experts who helped Burnham draw up Manchester carbon neutral pledge say backtracking would send wrong message amid wildfires and heatwaves
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Posted 1 month ago # -
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Industrial chicken farming is accelerating the spread of the world’s most common bacterial cause of diarrhoea, scientists have found.
The study found a dramatic increase in the exchange of campylobacter strains between wild birds and chickens as farming has intensified, creating the ideal conditions for the bacteria to mix, spread and acquire new traits. There has also been a rise in antimicrobial resistance traits in circulating strains, raising concerns that serious illness in people will be more difficult to treat.
“As the chicken population has exploded, they’ve increasingly picked up strains from different wild birds and become a cauldron of bacterial evolution,” said Prof Sam Sheppard of the University of Oxford and senior author of the paper. “Lots of strains come together and hybridise. We do not want that, because that’s where new Frankenstein monster bugs emerge.”
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Posted 1 month ago #
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