Projections of shortfalls – and calls for more production – come even as the bulk of gas produced in Australia is exported
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
East coast gas shortfalls could emerge as soon as 2027, a year earlier than was forecast six months ago, unless new sources of supply are made available, the competition watchdog has warned in a report.
Released on Friday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report does not cover the supply squeeze that prompted the market operator last month to issue a “threat notice” of potential shortfalls of the fuel in southern states, amid production issues and a prolonged cold snap.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/04/2024 - 10:00
07/04/2024 - 08:50
Changes to menu are part of the All England Club’s drive to be more environmentally sustainable
Victoria sponge bursting with strawberry jam and cream has been a staple at Wimbledon for decades, but now the All England Club has created a plant-based version for the first time.
The famous British cake has been transformed with Flora spread and coconut cream as part of a wider move to make the tournament more environmentally sustainable. The cake is being served to hospitality guests paying up to £2,000 a ticket.
Continue reading...
07/04/2024 - 06:00
Study that researchers say highlights chemicals’ ubiquity also shows PFAS association with seafood and red meat
New research aimed at identifying foods that contain higher levels of PFAS found people who eat more white rice, coffee, eggs and seafood typically showed more of the toxic chemicals in their plasma and breast milk.
The study checked samples from 3,000 pregnant mothers, and is among the first research to suggest coffee and white rice may be contaminated at higher rates than other foods. It also identified an association between red meat consumption and levels of PFOS, one of the most common and dangerous PFAS compounds.
Continue reading...
07/04/2024 - 05:00
The fastest birds in the world, peregrine falcons are sought after for racing and can sell for up to £250,000 in the Middle East. Poaching is a constant threat, with eggs and chicks stolen to supply the hidden market. Now, there are nationwide efforts under way to ring and take DNA from wild chicks – but just reaching their nests can be perilous
Words and photographs by Murdo MacLeod
Continue reading...
07/04/2024 - 01:00
From wildflower retreats and Novid rooms to locking yourself in a disabled toilet, hospital staff reveal where they go when they need a moment’s peace
Continue reading...
07/04/2024 - 00:00
It is no coincidence that ever more extreme politics has come at a time of ever more extreme weather
A disrupted climate and diminished natural world are widening the dividing lines of ideological debate. Left unchecked, this will undermine democracy.
That may not be the first thing on the minds of British voters as they go to the polls on Thursday. It is probably also a minority view in the rest of Europe or the US, where people are too much in the thick of a polycrisis to consider anything outside politics and economics as usual. But from a distance, in my case from the Amazon rainforest, there is a very different explanation for the tremors being witnessed in the old world and the new.
Continue reading...
07/03/2024 - 22:00
A study of the sea cow population in the South Pacific islands is urgently needed, say experts, as numbers fall dramatically
On a bright spring day, the sun dances over the water of Havannah Bay on the island of Efate in Vanuatu. Below the surface, pockets of seagrass that can just about be seen from the shoreline, sway in the current. It’s here, if they are lucky, that onlookers may spot a dugong bobbing in the shallow water, orbiting the seagrass meadows they feed on.
“It’s wonderful seeing them swimming by and grazing off the seagrass in front of the resort,” says Greg Pechan, the owner of a local hotel, the Havannah, which sits at the tip of the bay. Pointing out beyond the jetty that stretches into the Pacific Ocean, he says Vanuatu’s sea life is a big attraction for visitors to the Melanesian country.
Continue reading...
07/03/2024 - 12:40
Thompson fire near Oroville destroys homes and vehicles as state simmers in brutal and potentially historic heatwave
Thousands of homes are under threat from a raging wildfire that erupted in northern California on Tuesday, as the state simmers in a brutal and potentially historic heatwave.
Roughly 28,000 residents have been forced to evacuate as the Thompson fire quickly swept across more than 3,500 acres (1,416 hectares) near the city of Oroville, about an hour outside Sacramento, California’s capital.
Continue reading...
07/03/2024 - 10:00
The entrepreneur claims agency exaggerated the costs of the Coalition plan despite it using best-case scenario South Korea as the benchmark
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
High-profile entrepreneur Dick Smith entered the ongoing radioactive debate on nuclear energy this week, accusing government agencies of misleading ministers over the costs of reactors and the practicalities of renewables.
But Smith’s complaints about what the Australian Energy Market Operator’s plan for the future of the grid says, or how CSIRO calculated the costs of nuclear, are themselves misleading.
Continue reading...
07/03/2024 - 10:00
Exclusive: Ageing, flood-prone rail line carrying the city’s waste to landfill increasingly vulnerable to disruptions, experts say
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
Sydney is fast running out of landfill and an “emerging weak link” in the plan for how the city manages solid waste in the future could see uncollected garbage left piling up at hospitals and other businesses, experts warn.
Sydney has increasingly been sending its waste out of the city and its dwindling landfill capacities have long been acknowledged by the industry and relevant authorities. Some experts estimate Sydney will no longer be able to bury any of its own rubbish within city limits from as early as 2028.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...
