The latest environmental news from the US is that...giant pandas are under threat! Researchers at Yale University – that paragon of academic excellence – and Michigan State University came up with the shocking news when they discovered that the bamboo the pandas feed on cold be wiped out be the process of global warming. Apparently, some of the species of bamboo fond in areas of China where the pandas live only flower every 30-35 years, so any event that affects that cycle would be catastrophic for the plants, and hence the pandas.

The researchers particularly studied an area around the Quinling Mountains in Shaanxi province, where giant pandas have become isolated by human habitation over the centuries. The provincial capital, Xian, is also the site of the famous terracotta army and the area is known as the beginning of the Silk Road. In the celebrated words of John Bishop: "Someone, somewhere is gerrin a grant."

I was flabbergasted to read the news of the threat to panda survival, but even more filled with admiration for WWF, which picked the creature for its emblem all those years ago: must have been a lucky guess.

"Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not the shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you did not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak, or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally." (Ezekiel 34:2-4)

No, you haven't clicked onto Bible Gateway by mistake. That quote from the Old Testament is a damning indictment of the way people can treat what is put into their care. The consequences, according to the prophet Ezekiel, were devastating for the tribes of Israel. Those same verses were also quoted in a book on environmentalism in the church by long-established ecclesiastical heating specialist Christopher Dunphy. I picked up a copy at the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) North in Manchester last week.

I was intrigued to catch sight of a headline on the Guardian Environment site that read "Riding-hoods: how to beat the rain". Cycle capes, I thought, the original hi-vis garment.

My ageing mind clawed its way back to schooldays cycling to and from the daily drudge, protected from the incessant downpours (even then!) by the bright yellow oilskin one-piece, cleverly designed to cover the handlebars so your arms and hands were covered and there was just the spray from the road to soak you from the bottom up!

If you could bottle the hot air being generated in the row about gas, even George Osborne would probably admit defeat: the energy-from-waste produced would obviate the need for any other source completely. On Thursday the Committee on Climate Change published a letter to Ed Davey, the Secretary of State at DECC, expressing concern at a statement regarding the role of gas in future energy generation. In particular, it pointed out that there is a statutory requirement to meet carbon targets by 2030. The letter was pointedly copied to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor himself, who is widely suspected of favouring shifting the goalposts on gas.

A month or so ago this column carried a report on the Renewables Obligation Banding Review, which was somewhat less than enthusiastic about some biomass and biofuels options – in particular where crops are being grown for fuel instead of food. This week no less a body than food giant Nestlé threw its weight behind the argument, warning that US and EU biofuel targets could trigger a world food crisis, cutting production and driving up prices at a time when the US in particular is experiencing its worst drought in decades.

While most of the news stories with the keyword 'chimneys' in recent weeks have concerned the contraptions featured in Danny Boyle's somewhat elegiac Olympic Opening Ceremony, tucked away was a story that illustrates our equivocal view of the environment.

Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge is looking to construct a state-of-the-art energy innovation centre in its grounds, to take its energy production needs into the 21st century and replace the current combined heat and power plant - the NHS's first. To do so it will need to construct three large – that is, very high – chimneys and that is where the good people of Cambridge come up against a paradox. They don't want the chimneys because it will spoil the view.

"The next big step forward for renewables: energy storage!"

So tweeted US legal site J D Supra, leading the reader to a piece detailing a US government agency's 'solicitation' for grants towards developing technologies for storing renewable energy.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is part of the US Department of Energy and is to make $43m available to small businesses to "...fund the development of transformational technologies that reduce the barriers to mass adoption of electrical energy storage for stationary and transportation applications."

The article, by Daniel Freedman of US law firm Tharpe and Howell, goes on to explain: "With respect to stationary applications the ARPA-E solicitation focuses on storage systems to support electric vehicles and consumer meter applications. As for transportation applications, the ARPA-E solicitation focuses on battery chemistries, battery architectures and novel electric storage systems."

The long-awaited announcement on subsidies to renewable energy generation was made on 25 July, following protracted debate, acrimony and a spat between Energy Secretary Ed Davey and the Boy George that threatened to scupper the entire process and even the coalition. That brawl ended in victory for Davey, according to The Guardian, but only insofar as it affected onshore wind – several Megawatts were generated by the argument alone – leaving energy from waste and geothermal energy in the dark, so to speak.

Announcing the 'Renewables Obligation Banding Review' (more onshore wind), the Under Secretary at the department, Lord Marland, said: "We have some of the best renewable resources anywhere in the world, and the Government is absolutely determined that the UK will retain its reputation as one of the best places to invest in renewables. We have also legally committed to ensure that 15% of our energy will come from renewable sources by 2020."