News bites: Mining report delayed, rethinking economic growth, and more

China is barring its airlines from paying European Union carbon emissions charges, The Associated Press reports.

The Guardian reports that the EU’s climate chief says it’s time to rethink the wisdom of economic growth the way it’s currently defined. From its item:

Overconsumption of critical resources, and the rising prices of key commodities such as food, energy and natural materials as a result, risk derailing the world economy — but these problems will not be tackled unless today's economic models are overhauled, according to Connie Hedegaard, EU commissioner for climate action. That is because judging economic growth purely on the basis of production and consumption, as happens now, encourages rampant overconsumption and fails to value the natural environment.

The Washington Post reports that a major study on whether diesel exhaust causes lung cancer in miners has been delayed by “industry and congressional insistence on seeing study data and documents before the public does.”

Canada’s PostMedia news service reports on a poll that shows a majority of Canadians oppose hydraulic fracturing and would back a moratorium on the controversial natural-gas extraction method.

AP looks at Shell Oil's controversial push to begin drilling this year in Arctic waters off Alaska's coast.