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Water Purchase Tender in the Queensland Lower Balonne now open

Department of the Environment - Wed, 2014-09-24 18:02
Applications close 5.00 pm AEDT Thursday 30 October 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

Hairy, scary and lethal: how dangerous are Britain’s household spiders?

The Guardian - Wed, 2014-09-24 02:01
There have been lots of stories about deadly spiders invading the UK, but the arachnids we’re most likely to meet won’t bite. So what should we look out for?

Spiders are in the news again. It happens this time every year. Why? Because now is the time for spiders, in their more-or-less annual life cycle, to reach maturity – in other words, their maximum adult size. And yes, some of them can seem very big. They especially grow large when they have had plenty to eat and, being insect predators, they have grown fat on the full and wholesome menu of all those flies and bugs that nice, warm, sunny 2014 has delivered in such abundance.

First, a key fact: all spiders are venomous. That’s how they catch their insect prey, by injecting venom down hollow fangs into their struggling victims. But they don’t really bite humans. We are much too big and taste foul. Think about it. The largest garden spider, seemingly the size of a ping-pong ball hanging ponderously in its web, just cannot get its delicate jaws open wide enough to bite even the daintiest finger. It would be like a human vainly trying to bite a giant pumpkin. Of Britain’s 600 different spider species, just half-a-dozen can open their mouths wide enough, and have fangs long enough to deliver a venomous nip. Despite tabloid horror headlines, it feels like a wasp sting. Even a mild cat scratch can become infected and ooze pus. Deaths from spider bites still hover around the zero mark.

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Categories: Around The Web

Revamped lorry designs could avoid hundreds of cycling deaths – study

The Guardian - Tue, 2014-09-23 14:00

Lorries should have longer cabs, rounded noses and expanded glazed areas to increase visibility, Loughborough team says

Revamping lorry designs to overhaul blind spots in current models could save the lives of hundreds of cyclists and pedestrians every year, according to a new report by Loughborough University.

Lorries are responsible for over half of all cyclist deaths in London, a third across the UK as a whole, 43% of cycling fatalities in Belgium and 38% in the Netherlands.

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Categories: Around The Web

Draft conservation advice for the Posidonia australis seagrass meadows of the Manning-Hawkesbury ecoregion ecological community

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2014-09-22 14:36
Draft conservation advice for the Posidonia australis seagrass meadows of the Manning-Hawkesbury ecoregion ecological community. Consultation period closes on 5 November 2014
Categories: Around The Web

Rewilding Britain: bringing wolves, bears and beavers back to the land

The Guardian - Fri, 2014-09-19 19:59

Introducing extinct species to the landscape is called rewilding and advocates enthuse about the benefits. But opponents fear the impact could be devastating

A pair of highland ponies nibble grass as two kestrels swoop across the path. Up a rock face across this windswept valley deep in the Scottish highlands, a golden eagle is hunting for prey, its movements tracked by a GPS tag. Nearby are Scottish wildcats among the bracken – Europe’s rarest cat, with fewer than 400 left – plus red squirrels, black grouse, the occasional pine marten, shaggy highland cattle adapted to the harsh environment here, and, like much of the highlands, plenty of deer. Wild boar and moose roamed this corner of Sutherland until recently.

But if Paul Lister, the estate’s multimillionaire owner and the heir to the MFI fortune gets his way, two species not seen on this land for centuries could soon be added to the list: wolves and bears. Alladale estate, which Lister prefers to call a “wilderness reserve”, is one of the most ambitious examples of so-called “rewilding”, the banner under which a growing number of people are calling for the reintroduction of locally extinct species to landscapes. Bringing back species such as wolves, beavers and lynx, rewilding advocates say, can increase the diversity of other flora and fauna, enable woodlands to expand and help reconnect people with nature.

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Categories: Around The Web

Release of the Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2014

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-09-19 17:01
Release of the Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2014
Categories: Around The Web

Release of the Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2014

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-09-19 17:01
Release of the Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: March 2014
Categories: Around The Web

September Climate Summit and two SENG Qld events in October

Newsletters QLD - Fri, 2014-09-19 14:10
September Climate Summit and two SENG Qld events in October
Categories: Newsletters QLD

National Newsletter - Special Edition

Newsletters National - Fri, 2014-09-19 12:35
National Newsletter - Special Edition
Categories: Newsletters National

25th Anniversary Landcare Grants now open

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-09-19 10:12
Landcare and other community groups will share in up to $5 million, applications close 20 October 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

Queensland East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2014-09-18 10:11
Agency application on ecological sustainability - call for public comments open from 19 September 2014 until 24 November 2014
Categories: Around The Web

Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review - Website launched

Department of the Environment - Wed, 2014-09-17 10:18
The Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review is now underway following the setting aside of the management plans. A new website has been launched to provide ongoing information about the review. View the Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review website.
Categories: Around The Web

SENG Victoria News - September 2014

Newsletters VIC - Mon, 2014-09-15 20:05
SENG Victoria News - September 2014
Categories: Newsletters VIC

Draft Conservation advice for the Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland complex

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2014-09-15 15:14
Draft Conservation advice for the Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland complex is open for public comment. Consultation period closes on 29 October 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2014-09-15 08:45
The Australian and Queensland government has released the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan for public comment for a six week period until 27 October 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

Richard Branson failed to deliver on $3bn climate change pledge

The Guardian - Sun, 2014-09-14 00:55

New book by Naomi Klein claims that Virgin founder gave less than a tenth of cash promised to develop low carbon fuel

Naomi Klein: the hypocrisy behind the big business climate change battle

Richard Branson has failed to deliver on his much-vaunted pledge to spend $3bn (£1.8bn) over a decade to develop a low carbon fuel.

Seven years into the pledge, Branson has paid out only a small fraction of the promised money – “well under $300m” – according to a new book by the writer and activist, Naomi Klein.

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Categories: Around The Web

Cost Recovery Implementation Statement

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2014-09-09 16:00
The final Cost Recovery Implementation Statement (July 2014-June 2015) has now been published. Cost Recovery for environmental impact assessments and some strategic assessments commences on 1 October 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

The Finalised Priority Assessment List has now been published

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2014-09-08 17:57
The ‘Finalised Priority Assessment List’ has now been published for the assessment period beginning 1 October 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

Public consultation: draft assessment bilateral agreement between the Commonwealth and Victoria

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-09-05 09:27
The Department is seeking public comment on a draft assessment bilateral agreement with Victoria. Comments close Friday 3 October 2014
Categories: Around The Web

BP's reckless conduct caused Deepwater Horizon oil spill, judge rules

The Guardian - Fri, 2014-09-05 02:11

Judge’s ruling that BP bears 67% of blame for Deepwater Horizon disaster could nearly quadruple amount of civil penalties

BP bears the majority of responsibility among the companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a federal judge ruled Thursday, citing the energy giant’s reckless conduct over the disaster in a ruling that exposes it to billions of dollars in penalties.

BP plc already has agreed to pay billions of dollars in criminal fines and compensation to people and businesses affected by the disaster, the worst-ever US oil spill. But US district Judge Carl Barbier’s ruling could nearly quadruple what the London-based company has to pay in civil fines for polluting the Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 spill.

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Categories: Around The Web

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