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Liquid water 'lake' revealed on Mars
British farmers fear fire as heatwave creates 'tinderbox'
Wildfire is now an over-riding concern for many farmers, who are taking extra precautions to stop fires spreading as the hot spell continues
“It’s like a tinderbox out here,” says Lesley Chandler, looking down at parched fields where bleached-out grass struggles through baked, stone-hard earth. “Just a spark could set it all alight.”
Chandler farms 200 acres of arable land in Oxfordshire, where there has been virtually no rain for weeks. Pastures that would normally boast grass nearly a foot tall have instead a thin cover of dried-out vegetation.
Continue reading...Gene editing is GM, says European Court
EU Market: EUAs leap back towards 7-year high after bumper UK sale clears above market
Facebook video spreads climate denial misinformation to 5 million users | Dana Nuccitelli
Facebook is still struggling to contain its fake news problem
Marc Morano is the real-world fossil fuel industry version of Nick Naylor. His career began working for Rush Limbaugh, followed by a job at Cybercast News Service where he launched the ‘Swift Boat’ attacks on 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. In 2006, Morano became the director of communications for Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who is perhaps best known for throwing a snowball on the Senate floor and calling human-caused global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”
Thus it’s unsurprising that in 2009, Morano began directing fossil fuel-funded think tanks designed to cast doubt on the reality of and dangers associated with human-caused global warming. As he admitted in Merchants of Doubt, Morano frequently embodies the strategy of climate denial known as ‘fake experts’:
Continue reading...Australian minister open to reviewing NEG emissions target in 2024
NZ Market: NZUs break above NZ$23 as record push continues
Why do dingoes attack people, and how can we prevent it?
UK theme parks to offer half-price entry in exchange for used plastic bottles
Legoland and Thorpe Park among the attractions that have joined Coca-Cola in a trial offering instant incentives for recycling
Visitors to some of the UK’s most popular tourist attractions are to be offered half-price entry in exchange for used plastic drinks bottles, as part of a trial starting on Wednesday which gives instant incentives for recycling.
In a tie-up between theme park operator Merlin and drinks giant Coca-Cola, a series of so-called “reverse vending machines” will be installed outside the entrances of Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Chessington World of Adventures and Legoland.
Continue reading...Oregon lawmakers still at impasse over future of cap-and-trade plans
Country diary: bandit birds keep these glorious gardens wild
Powis Castle, Welshpool, Powys: The crows live a parallel existence as shrine animals, stealing tributes from visitors, essential to the life of the place but overlooked
Two young crows, beaks agape, sat quietly on the stump of a beech tree I cut down on the eastern bank below the castle walls in the late 1970s. The crows waited for a parent to turn up with the remains of a sandwich nicked from the cafe down the garden. They were living a kind of parallel existence as shrine animals, dark creatures in the garden’s gloriously vivid displays of flower, stealing tributes from visitors, essential to the life of the place but overlooked.
Cultural places in the public view have a wild private life. Behind the care and hard work that sustains a garden like this and gives it aesthetic qualities that people from all over the world come to experience, there is a wild life that grounds it in place and provides an ecological context for the cultural. Much of this life, once persecuted for its wildness, is now celebrated as wildlife but crows retain that outsider, transgressive character. However beautiful the garden is, crows reveal a secret bandit territory. Common and dark, they are almost invisible and yet nonetheless tutelary.
Continue reading...EV vs ICE: The cost gap that is holding Australia back
WSU students win major US solar car race – a first for Australia
NEG: Commonwealth paper shows Coalition not budging on emissions
South Australia on track to meet 75% renewables target Liberals promised to scrap
Liberal energy minister, who inherited policy criticised as a mix of ‘ideology and idiocy’, says he’ll ensure it does not come at too high a price
South Australia’s energy minister says the state is on track to have 75% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025 – the target set by the former Labor premier Jay Weatherill and once rejected by his Liberal government.
And Dan van Holst Pellekaan pledged to ensure it does not come at too high a price.
Continue reading...California wildfires partially shut down Yosemite at peak of tourist season
National park, which gets more than half a million visitors in July alone, sees section closed amid dangerous air quality
Yosemite national park has been partially closed as wildfires continue to sweep across California this week. Fueled by dry conditions and high temperatures, smoke has settled over the popular tourist destination, causing unsafe conditions for visitors and workers, prompting officials to issue a temporary closure and evacuate the remaining tourists beginning Wednesday at noon.
National Park Service representatives announced at a public meeting Tuesday that the iconic Yosemite valley, as well as the Wawona area, would be closed temporarily until air quality conditions improve.
Continue reading...CP Daily: Tuesday July 24, 2018
Specieswatch: European hornets visit our pond in the heatwave
European hornets have moved north with climate change, but are generally less aggressive than common wasps
In a drought, all sorts of wildlife gets attracted to a garden pond since there are few other sources of water nearby. Regular visitors are wasps, the largest of which is the European hornet, Vespa crabro, which dwarfs common wasps because it is twice the size, at 25mm long.
According to the experts it is less aggressive than the common wasp, but carries a substantial sting – so requires respect. Although once confined to the extreme south of Britain because it was too cold further north, climate change has allowed hornets to extend their range as far north as Scotland, and they are now common in the Midlands and central England.
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