Around The Web

AC/DC: The unheralded debate in Australia’s future grid

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-05-14 10:10
There may be significant advantage in a renewables centric grid to using DC for transmission as opposed to AC.
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Ebola's return

BBC - Mon, 2018-05-14 09:42
It is unrealistic to think Ebola will ever be eradicated, but it is now easier to prevent a crisis.
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Ebola's return

BBC - Mon, 2018-05-14 09:42
It is unrealistic to think Ebola will ever be eradicated, but it is now easier to prevent a crisis.
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Cape York land clearing won't impact Great Barrier Reef, Entsch says

ABC Environment - Mon, 2018-05-14 08:06
Entsch said both State and Federal studies show land clearing won't accelerate the runoff of pollution and sedimentation into the Great Barrier Reef.
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Environmental groups warn Queensland land clearing threatens reef

ABC Environment - Mon, 2018-05-14 07:52
The Federal Government has taken a big step towards approving the project.
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Is that selfie really worth it? Why face time with wild animals is a bad idea

The Conversation - Mon, 2018-05-14 06:30
Here's some advice on taking selfies with wild animals: don't. It's not fun for the animal, and can have serious knock-on effects for their health. And you could be injured (or worse). Kathryn Teare Ada Lambert, Adjunct Lecturer/ Ecologist, University of New England Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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First Solar reaches financial close for Beryl solar farm in NSW

RenewEconomy - Sun, 2018-05-13 17:28
First Solar reach financial close for new 87MW Beryl solar farm in NSW.
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Carnivorous plants: so you thought the triffids were make-believe…

The Guardian - Sun, 2018-05-13 16:00
A guide to flora with a hunger for flesh – and the intriguing and elaborate ways in which they get hold of it

Scientists at the University of Freiburg in Germany have for the first time characterised the snapping movement of this rare aquatic carnivorous plant, found in wetlands around the world. Aldrovanda vesiculosa snaps its “trap” shut 10 times faster than the much larger Venus flytrap, using a combination of hydraulics and the release of pre-stress to capture water fleas and possibly even tadpoles and small fish.

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Warning Cape York land-clearing approval puts Great Barrier Reef at risk

The Guardian - Sun, 2018-05-13 15:14

Conservation groups call on Coalition to honour reef budget pledge by overturning Kingvale station decision
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The Turnbull government faces a test of its $500m budget commitment to protect the Great Barrier Reef, after federal environment officials ruled that a farmer could clear almost 2,000 hectares of Queensland forest.

A draft report from the Department of Environment recommends that the clearing at Kingvale station on Cape York, which was authorised under the former Newman state government 2014, should be permitted to go ahead with conditions.

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'Oldest' turtle, 80, returns to Blackpool after 15 years

BBC - Sun, 2018-05-13 09:30
The giant green sea turtle is thought to be oldest of its kind in captivity in the UK.
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Campaigners slam £1m incentive to store nuclear waste

The Guardian - Sun, 2018-05-13 05:59

Compensation offered to encourage local communities to allow test boreholes is described as ‘completely inadequate’

MPs from both major parties have attacked the government’s latest incentive to entice communities into volunteering to host Britain’s first deep underground store for nuclear waste as “completely inadequate”.

Ministers have offered up to £1m per community for areas that constructively engage in offering to take part in the scheme, and a further sum of up to £2.5m where deep borehole investigations take place.

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Peers to rebel over ‘toothless’ post-Brexit green watchdog

The Guardian - Sun, 2018-05-13 05:33
Former ministers condemn new body’s lack of power for legal action against government

A former Tory cabinet minister is backing efforts to force through tough green laws after Brexit, amid anger over plans that would weaken environmental protections once Britain leaves the European Union.

Four former environment and climate change secretaries from three parties told the Observer they had concerns about “toothless” plans announced by the government last week, which suggested the new post-Brexit green watchdog would lack the power to take the government to court.

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‘Paradise and hell’: the battle to save the forest elephant

The Guardian - Sat, 2018-05-12 17:01

Gabon’s wild and beautiful rainforest is on the frontline against ivory poachers, part of international criminal networks that also fund terrorists

Deep in the steamy rainforest of Gabon, a poaching gang’s night-time fire is smouldering and two long elephant tusks lie among the tangled roots. The axe that hacked them off lies nearby.

Just after dawn, the insect buzz and bird chatter is suddenly pierced by a whistle blast and camouflaged park guards burst out from their forest cover, swiftly pinning the poachers to the ground.

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Cockatoo wail, fledge or fail

ABC Environment - Sat, 2018-05-12 13:05
The wailing calls of the red-tailed black cockatoos that live in Australia's South East are being used to help change the future for the failing species.
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Cuckoo bee species 'hiding in plain sight'

BBC - Sat, 2018-05-12 12:16
Researchers identify 15 new species of sneaky bees hidden in museum collections and in an ancient thesis.
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Stephen Hawking service: Possibility of time travellers 'can't be excluded'

BBC - Sat, 2018-05-12 11:02
Anyone born in the next 20 years is eligible to apply for a seat at the Westminster Abbey service.
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'Just four citizens': the Australians who confronted Adani in India, and made a difference

The Guardian - Sat, 2018-05-12 09:24

In this book extract, Geoff Cousins describes how the farmer, the activist, the tourism operator and ‘an old bald man with hope in his heart’ travelled to India to protest against Adani

I settled back into the seat as the Air India flight took off from my hometown of Sydney, unaware of just how relieved I would be to return there. I had been warned the Indian government might take a dim view of our mission to intercept the Queensland premier on her journey to have lunch with chairman Gautam Adani, who would be intending to impress on her the force and majesty of his major asset, the Mundra power plant – ironically, now for sale for one rupee.

I’d also been told there was a chance that either the government or Adani or both were intercepting all my communications. So there was a degree of apprehension even as I passed through customs in New Delhi, since I was travelling on a tourist visa and the sites we would be visiting did not include the Taj Mahal.

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Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight

BBC - Sat, 2018-05-12 08:44
The space agency says it will be the first test of a heavier-than-air aircraft on another planet.
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CP Daily: Friday May 11, 2018

Carbon Pulse - Sat, 2018-05-12 08:10
Presenting CP Daily, Carbon Pulse’s free newsletter. It’s a daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world. Subscribe here TOP STORIES Switzerland approaches countries to host pilot crediting under Paris Agreement Switzerland has begun talks with several developing nations to test pilot GHG-cutting initiatives, aiming to secure carbon credits that could […]
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SpaceX flies 'lessons learned' rocket

BBC - Sat, 2018-05-12 07:10
The California rocket company SpaceX conducts what is arguably its most important launch to date.
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