From December, the Environment Agency is to publish flood
risk maps on its website for the first time.

Deforestation in the Amazon increased by nearly a third over
the past year. Relaxed government regulation and higher commodity
prices have both contributed. A new websitemaps where
deforestation is occurring around the world.

Energy regulator Ofgem says its analysis shows that from now
to October 2014, rising network charges will add £15 to the average
energy bill – much less than estimates from the big energy
companies.

“A vast majority of red-state Americans believe climate
change is real and at least two-thirds of those want the government
to cut greenhouse gas emissions, new research revealed on
Wednesday.” More than half of Republicans in congress say climate
change isn’t real or oppose action on it, according to US
advocates.

Centrica has said its profits will fall this year. “The
company said pressure on other divisions [than British Gas] … and
abroad was responsible for the lower than expected earnings this
year.” The Telegraph’s Emily Gosden also covers the
story here.

“RWE will cut about one in 10 jobs as the utility, battered
by Germany’s renewables boom, forecast that profit next year will
almost halve … In common with other energy companies, RWE has
been hit by a slump in the wholesale price of electricity and the
transition to renewable energy in Germany, where feed-ins from
solar and wind are increasingly taking the place of power generated
from fossil fuel power stations.” The Telegraph has spoken with RWE, which says the fall
in profits “blows apart the myth” that power companies are making
excess profits.

A new study models ocean acidification, saying it could
increase by 170% by 2100, with 30% of ocean species unlikely to
survive such a change – “The world’s oceans are becoming acidic at
an “unprecedented rate” and may be souring more rapidly than at any
time in the past 300 million years.”

The pope has posed with an anti-fracking t-shirt – the blog
post writes itself.