Around The Web

Two Suffolk punch horses are being put forward for a charity's breeding programme.

They were patrolling off the South Australian coast when they noticed something behind them.

Monash family appalled by Coalition's use of name to push "anti-science" and "anti-intellectual" arguments for technology of the "horse and buggy era."

Friends of the Earth demands the oil firm move away from fossil fuels to comply with Paris deal

The global flurry of legal campaigns against “big oil” has widened, with Royal Dutch Shell being threatened with legal action unless it steps up efforts to comply with the Paris climate agreement.

Friends of the Earth Netherlands on Wednesday demanded the Anglo-Dutch company revise plans to invest only 5% in sustainable energy and 95% in greenhouse-gas emitting oil and gas.

Continue reading...

Photographer Francesco Bosso travelled to Greenland to capture images of the melting icebergs, which he describes as ‘gems of nature in danger of extinction’. The results are presented in his new book, Last Diamonds

Continue reading...

Lune Estuary, Lancaster: Some oystercatchers piped the first bars of their call and then, as if a signal that dawn had broken, a curlew summoned sunrise

It was becoming light, but not light yet. Water, salt marsh, sky: these were names for things that did not exist in the dark before dawn. Then the glim of something, maybe a moon-piece, as befits the Lune, made its way in to where it was possible to look but not go. There was the cold, face-wash quiet of the air and the slight rub of dry sedge trodden on the road. There was frost, if that smells of silver. A spectral breath returned inside after exhalation, setting the mind afloat. There was a slow opening in the east and then the nets of river fog filled with gold.

As shoals of light swam through the air, the river and the land floated in banded layers of colour, none of which lasted longer than a few seconds. This was a weightless landscape, at liberty and so insubstantial that any ripple could disperse any or all parts of it to drift away in different directions. As the sky blued into being, a bow of geese flew northward and a jack snipe lifted from somewhere indefinable between marsh and water, jinking bat-like out of and back into the mist. Far off, some oystercatchers piped the first bars of their call and then, as if a signal that dawn had broken, a curlew summoned sunrise, its song a weir of keening but without grief.

Continue reading...

The City of Suzhou in eastern China has deployed a fleet of electric workboats powered by Torqeedo motors as part of a program to clean up its canals and waterways.

Will Tesla's improved Model 3 production stats keep the professional short-sellers at bay as new competitors loom?

Aim of Monash Forum may be to ensure renewable energy wins slowly enough that coal can earn one last payday.

Last week, Shell published a “radical” new climate change scenario, showing how the world could meet the “well-below 2C” goal of the Paris Agreement.

Greens accept carbon price won't happen any time soon, but call for coal and petrol cars to be phased out by 2030. Government also has intervention on its mind, and Turnbull has pleaded with AGL again to keep Liddell open, so he can keep the hard right at bay.

Police officers in South Australia had a close encounter with a great white shark while they were out on a routine operation checking boat registrations over the Easter break.

Continue reading...

Shark nicknamed ‘Noah’ gets between officers and fishing boat selected for random breath test

A great white shark swimming in one of Australia’s most renowned shark habitats interrupted a police operation on Saturday by serenely terrifying the officers.

The shark, dubbed Noah by South Australia police, glided in between a police dinghy containing two life-jacketed police officers and their intended target, a recreational fishing boat selected for a random breath test.

Continue reading...

The AEMC has expedited a new rule so that customers can start to benefit early from the demand management incentive scheme (DMIS).

Scientists have developed a fabric that generates electricity when stretched. Unlike most electronics, it works better when wet.

Baringa Partners, the specialist energy markets management consultancy, opens a permanent office in Australia to build on worldwide success.

Bowheads serenade each other off Greenland with a vast repertoire of improvised jazz-like song, study says

How do bowhead whales in the unbroken darkness of the Arctic’s polar winter keep busy during breeding season?

They sing, of course.

Continue reading...

A new study reveals the surprising complexity of bowhead whale song.

The new pro-coal ‘Monash Forum’ follows in a rich political tradition of think tanks and pressure groups, all with names calculated to lend themselves maximum gravitas and a large dose of obfuscation. Marc Hudson, PhD Candidate, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The Monash Forum's manifesto, reprinted in full below, can be briefly summed up as "coal subsidies good, renewable subsidies bad." But it already has Turnbull asking how high he should jump.