Earlier this year, the price of energy, particularly oil, was one of the biggest issues in world politics, and particularly American politics (climate change has always been a second-order issue there). The spike in the oil price drew mainstream media attention to a theory that had been doing the rounds of the blogosphere - and, later on, the mainstream media - Peak Oil. To recap, the Peak Oil hypothesis states that the level of world oil production will reach an absolute peak, and then start to decline, on a fairly rapid basis. The consequences? Read more »

A dam wall burst releasing more than a billion gallons of coal ash in East Tennessee just before Christmas on December 22.    The gray sludge apparently now covers over 300 acres and has destroyed three homes.   Read more »

Sydney wants green to be the dominant colour in its massive New Year’s Eve fireworks and festivities to herald in 2009.  Read more here.

Infrastructure Australia's short-list released today includes proposals which would help build a sustainable Australia and others which would lock the country into a high-polluting path for decades, the Australian Greens said today.

The proposals across transport, ports and energy are on balance positive, with more than half (based on indicative capital cost) likely to have a net positive environmental impact and less than half a questionable or net negative impact. Read more »

So GetUp has raised $93 000 in just 24 hours to get the Spot the Difference ad¹ on the air during the boxing day test, suggesting the discontent over the target announcement will crystallise into a significant force during the new year. Read more »