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Heatwaves, drought and wildfires – green news roundup
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Continue reading...In pictures
Federal Politics: Husar investigation, tax cuts and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
Great Barrier Grief: questions over foundation funding
Why compostable plastics may be no better for the environment
CP Daily: Wednesday August 1, 2018
Australia’s 2017 solar PV installation tally already eclipsed – in July
Ssangyong hints at all-electric ute for Australia
America’s first big offshore wind farm sets record low price of 6.5c/kWh
ACT lays out conditions for NEG – and it won’t please Coalition party room
Full absurdity of National Energy Guarantee laid bare
Country diary: lovely lavender works its charm
Crook, County Durham: A dozen green-veined and small white butterflies flit restlessly between flower heads, pausing just long enough to uncoil their tongues and probe a floret
Two o’clock in the afternoon, the hottest, drowsiest time of day, and the air is saturated with fragrance from a gnarled old lavender bush that sprawls over the garden wall. It carries more than 200 flower spikes, and every bumblebee and butterfly in the garden seems to have fallen for their charms.
Constant movement makes them hard to count but there must be at least 30 carder bumblebees (Bombus pascuorum). Stems flex under their weight like vaulters’ poles, as they explore each floret for a second, before moving to the next, and then flying to another inflorescence. They are possessed with relentless urgency, and lavender has them in its spell, offering easy-access nectar but only in tiny doses, compelling them to move from floret to floret to make their visits worthwhile. It’s an evolutionary trade-off between flower and pollinator workforce, a balance between floral energy reward and insect energy expenditure. This afternoon lavender offers the best deal in the garden.
Continue reading...Curious Kids: How do plastic bags harm our environment and sea life?
Confused about energy? How business can take the power back
Honda, Enel X to reward EV drivers for balancing grid
Malcolm Turnbull urged to 'come clean' on meeting that led to $440m Barrier Reef grant
Labor says there has been ‘no probity’ around awarding of grant to tiny charity
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is being pressed by Labor and the Greens to explain what was said in a private meeting that led to the awarding of a $443.8m grant to a small not-for-profit group for the Great Barrier Reef without a tender process.
It comes after new revelations that the environment and energy department secretary, Finn Pratt, was not present at an April meeting between Turnbull, the environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation chairman, John Schubert.
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