Around The Web

Liquid water 'lake' revealed on Mars

BBC - Thu, 2018-07-26 00:00
Researchers believe they have found the first existing body of liquid water on the Red Planet.
Categories: Around The Web

British farmers fear fire as heatwave creates 'tinderbox'

The Guardian - Wed, 2018-07-25 23:35

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...
Categories: Around The Web

Gene editing is GM, says European Court

BBC - Wed, 2018-07-25 21:12
The European Court of Justice has ruled that altering living things using the relatively new technique of genome editing counts as genetic engineering.
Categories: Around The Web

EU Market: EUAs leap back towards 7-year high after bumper UK sale clears above market

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2018-07-25 20:03
EU carbon allowances jumped back towards their seven-year high early on Wednesday as the market comfortably absorbed an exceptionally large UK auction.
Categories: Around The Web

Facebook video spreads climate denial misinformation to 5 million users | Dana Nuccitelli

The Guardian - Wed, 2018-07-25 20:00

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...
Categories: Around The Web

Australian minister open to reviewing NEG emissions target in 2024

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2018-07-25 18:52
Australian Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg has told state premiers and ministers that the emissions target under the proposed National Energy Guarantee (NEG) could be open to review in 2024, a move that would allow a future Labor government to strengthen the scheme’s ambition.
Categories: Around The Web

NZ Market: NZUs break above NZ$23 as record push continues

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2018-07-25 18:46
New Zealand carbon allowances made another leap on Wednesday to hit NZ$23 ($15.64) for the first time as the supply shortage continued to push up prices.
Categories: Around The Web

Why do dingoes attack people, and how can we prevent it?

The Conversation - Wed, 2018-07-25 16:15
An attack on a WA mine worker has highlighted the danger of wild dingoes, particularly when attracted by humans' food - one of the factors that can make an attack by wild predators much more likely. Bill Bateman, Senior Lecturer, Curtin University Trish Fleming, Associate Professor, Murdoch University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
Categories: Around The Web

UK theme parks to offer half-price entry in exchange for used plastic bottles

The Guardian - Wed, 2018-07-25 16:01

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...
Categories: Around The Web

Oregon lawmakers still at impasse over future of cap-and-trade plans

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2018-07-25 15:29
A bipartisan legislative committee designed to give Oregon lawmakers a chance to more fully understand and shape the future of the state’s climate policy revealed on Tuesday that a wide rift still exists between some members over what carbon pricing strategy Oregon should take, if at all.
Categories: Around The Web

Country diary: bandit birds keep these glorious gardens wild

The Guardian - Wed, 2018-07-25 14:30

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...
Categories: Around The Web

EV vs ICE: The cost gap that is holding Australia back

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2018-07-25 14:18
A new report issued by RACQ has revealed telling figures that could be holding back the adoption of EVs in Australia.
Categories: Around The Web

WSU students win major US solar car race – a first for Australia

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2018-07-25 13:46
Western Sydney University's Unlimited 2.0 has put Australia on the solar car racing map, becoming first international team to win American Solar Challenge.
Categories: Around The Web

NEG: Commonwealth paper shows Coalition not budging on emissions

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2018-07-25 13:15
New Commonwealth document shows Coalition has not moved on emissions for National Energy Guarantee, and the use of offsets in such a weak target will mean retailers will not have to make any new investments in wind or solar.
Categories: Around The Web

South Australia on track to meet 75% renewables target Liberals promised to scrap

The Guardian - Wed, 2018-07-25 11:38

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...
Categories: Around The Web

California wildfires partially shut down Yosemite at peak of tourist season

The Guardian - Wed, 2018-07-25 08:48

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...
Categories: Around The Web

CP Daily: Tuesday July 24, 2018

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2018-07-25 08:30
A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.
Categories: Around The Web

Specieswatch: European hornets visit our pond in the heatwave

The Guardian - Wed, 2018-07-25 06:30

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.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

US fuel economy rollback would increase transportation emissions 11% – report

Carbon Pulse - Wed, 2018-07-25 06:12
The Trump administration’s reported plan to downgrade US vehicle fuel economy standards and revoke California’s authority to set more stringent targets would lead to higher transport sector emissions and greater economic and health losses, according to a policy brief issued Tuesday.
Categories: Around The Web

ESB paper: Strange, sloppy results suggest agenda at work

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2018-07-25 06:10
The latest ESB document includes some strange results. We hate to say it but there seems to be an agenda at work.  
Categories: Around The Web

Pages

Subscribe to Sustainable Engineering Society aggregator - Around The Web