Around The Web

Arachnids join army of creatures scrambling to reach higher ground as waters rise on Australia’s east coast

• Follow the NSW floods liveblog
• NSW pounded by rain as residents along Hawkesbury brace for worst flooding in 50 years

A carpet of brown greeted Matt Lovenfosse as he pulled up to his home on Monday morning. “So I went out to have a look, and it was millions of spiders,” he told Guardian Australia.

The spiders were running ahead of flood water rising up from Kinchela Creek, pouring across the back of Lovenfosse’s property on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.

Continue reading...

Spiders have been spotted at numerous locations attempting to flee to higher ground during New South Wales floods. Shenae and Steve Varley witnessed spiders covering 'the entire length of the railing that’s not under water' at the Penrith weir in western Sydney. Macksville resident Melanie Williams was also shocked by a swarm of spiders climbing the outer wall of her home as they fled for higher ground.

• NSW weather live: Berejiklian says fires and floods may push people to ‘breaking point’ as disaster relief payment expanded
• 'Never seen anything like it': locals watch helplessly as floodwaters rise across New South Wales

Continue reading...

The Principal Adviser ETS Forestry is responsible for providing intellectual leadership, in-depth analysis and advice on emerging issues affecting forest carbon in the ETS.

This role will be responsible for coordinating engagement research and analysis in alignment with the goals of the Climate Action 100+ corporate engagement initiative.

Australian Greens move to block Morrison's quest for a government funded gas plant in Kurri Kurri, proposing a ban on Snowy Hydro fossil fuel investments.

The post Greens try to head off Snowy Hydro gas plant with fossil fuel ban appeared first on RenewEconomy.

South Korea will appoint three additional market makers to boost liquidity in its emissions trading scheme, the environment ministry has announced, just days after amending the rules to allow private-sector entities to fill the role.

Gutwein Government refuses to release documents showing advice it received before the signing of an agreement with the federal government on major energy projects.

The post Gutwein government refuses to release PR advice on energy agreement with Morrison appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Undersea shell middens contain important clues about the past - what people ate, who they were interacting with and how the climate was changing. Now we have a better way to detect and excavate them. Katherine Woo, Postdoctoral Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University Geoff Bailey, Emeritus Professor of Archaeology, University of York Jessica Cook Hale, Visiting Scholar, University of Georgia Jonathan Benjamin, Associate Professor in Maritime Archaeology, Flinders University and ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University Sean Ulm, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A scheme offering people up to £10,000 for insulation has only reached 10% of its target, MPs say.

Sports teams and competitions are urged to drop sponsorship deals from companies that promote "high carbon lifestyles, products and services".

Misuse and subsidising of supplies for the rich also causing shortages and high prices for the poor and vulnerable

The failure of governments around the world to place a clear value on water is leading to widespread water waste, shortages and high prices for poor and vulnerable people, the UN has warned.

In many countries, water is treated as a low-cost resource for uses such as irrigation, but this is leading some farmers to use too much, causing scarcity for other users. In other places, rich people receive heavily subsidised water to their homes, leading to further waste, while the poor struggle to gain access to water for essential uses.

Continue reading...

The proposed $600m hybrid solar thermal project in Mount Isa has got early financial backing from the Queensland government's Stanwell Energy.

The post Stanwell signs up to Vast Solar’s Mt Isa thermal solar project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia is giving away too much value through exports of commodities, but could capture that value through wind and solar resources and other new technologies.

The post Wind and solar offer key to Australia’s ‘buy or build’ growth challenge appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Energy Security Board is devising ways to keep the grid operating along the rocky road of the renewables transition. But is it looking far enough ahead?

The post The post 2025 energy market must plan for a grid without coal appeared first on RenewEconomy.

It's said the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. Let's hope that's not the case with Mathias Cormann's climate stance when he joins the OECD. Christian Downie, Associate professor, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Animal ‘slightly underweight’ but seemed in generally good health and was probably looking for food

An Arctic walrus has been spotted off the Pembrokeshire coast, prompting a callout to the RSPCA to check on animal’s welfare.

The walrus was first spotted a week earlier on rocks in County Kerry, Ireland, before seemingly making its way over to south Wales.

Continue reading...

People in parts of south-west England report seeing a "streak of light" hurtling across the sky.

Scientists warn that Nobel summit and long-term decisions to save the planet are at risk from targeted attacks online

Fake news on social media about climate change and biodiversity loss is having a worrying impact in the battle to halt the growing environmental threats to the planet, a group of scientists and analysts have warned.

In a report published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, they say measures needed to create a healthier, more resilient planet – by reducing fossil fuel emissions, overfishing and other threats – will be hard to enforce if they continue to suffer targeted attacks in social media. The international cooperation that is needed to halt global heating and species loss could otherwise be jeopardised, they say.

Continue reading...

Storks, butterflies and turtle doves could all suffer at the Knepp estate in West Sussex

It is a place where rare white storks raise their chicks alongside peregrine falcons and purple emperor butterflies, where the trees are filled with endangered turtle doves and nightingales, and where the population of breeding songbirds is the densest in Britain.

For conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts, the Knepp estate in West Sussex is more than just a wildlife sanctuary, it is a symbol of hope: a former arable and dairy farm that is now a world-famous rewilding project, home to some of the rarest birds and insects in the UK.

Continue reading...

The tiny crustacean, never seen elsewhere, has been ‘breeding like mad’ at the Horniman by the South Circular road

For more than a decade, nobody at the museum had any idea that the unusally fast-moving, zig-zagging shrimp they were feeding to the fish in their aquarium was a brand-new species that had never been seen before anywhere else in the world.

Smaller than a child’s fingernail, the new type of marine mysid crustacean has been discovered in a humble tank at the Horniman museum in London, where it has spent at least the past 12 years hiding in plain sight and “breeding like mad”.

Continue reading...