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Song meters help save a critically endangered bird; regional youth strut their stuff at an arts workshop; and flannel flowers put on a dazzling display.

Overgrown mice are killing millions of chicks on the remote Gough Island in the South Atlantic.

Australian energy storage company Redflow Limited has today strengthened its Board by recruiting David Brant, an experienced businessman with strategic manufacturing expertise.

The post Redflow Board gains manufacturing expertise appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Charities tackling hunger could save Britain £500m a year if they had capacity, finds report

The collection and redistribution of edible food by the UK’s largest charity tackling hunger – and that would otherwise go to waste – saves the UK economy some £51m every year, according to an independent report published on Monday.

If FareShare and other charities in the sector were able to scale up their capacity in order to handle half of the surplus food available in the UK supply chain, the value back to the state could be as much as £500m per year, it claims.

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Michael Gove unveils consultation on move to cut pollution and protect oceans

Plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds could be banned within a year under government plans to cut pollution, Michael Gove is to announce.

Launching a consultation on the proposals on Monday, the environment secretary will cite the success of the 5p charge on single-use plastic bags, which led to an 86% drop in their use at major supermarkets.

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Solar pushes wholesale prices into negative territory on two consecutive days in Queensland, highlighting changing shape of the grid.

The post Solar sends day-time prices negative in coal-dominated Queensland appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Combined output of Australia's large scale solar farms breaks through 1GW mark for first time.

The post Australia large scale solar output breaks through 1GW on Sunday appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Nauru is best known as a site of Australian offshore asylum detention. But everyone on the island - not just refugees - is struggling with the issue of environmental change that threatens their lives and homes. Anja Kanngieser, Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow, University of Wollongong Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Former governor general Michael Jeffery says soil health and regenerative farming is essential for security and carbon emissions

From the red soil of his hometown in the Western Australian outback town of Wiluna, Michael Jeffery very nearly became a farmer.

He opted for being a soldier instead, serving in Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam, where he was awarded the Military Cross and the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. After a distinguished military career, he served as governor of his home state of Western Australia and governor general of Australia – who represents the Queen, Australia’s head of state.

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Readers Eric Banks, Clare Hay, Michael Robinson, and Frances Middleton discuss the environmental and spiritual pros and cons of dishwashers

I have to take issue with Jo Steranka (How you can do your bit in the war against climate change, Letters, 18 October). Dishwashers are typically much more efficient than hand washing in terms of energy and water consumption. Research carried out by Christian Paul Richter (Usage of dishwashers: observation of consumer habits in the domestic environment, International Journal of Consumer Studies, 2011) on 200 households in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Britain, found that households with a dishwasher used on average 50% less water and 28% less energy per cleaned item than households that didn’t own a dishwasher. Even so, a higher degree of sustainability was identified because 20% of dishwasher cycles were not fully utilised and 52% operated at a temperature that was higher than necessary.

Furthermore, Jo Steranka states that “opinion pieces don’t help if they don’t offer practical solutions”; er, has she tried digging up a paved garden? Getting around a city (that isn’t London) without a car? Not buying new clothes until the old ones wear out? Get real, Jo! (Although I do agree about buying local produce and turning off the lights at bedtime – are there people who don’t?)

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A scheme at one Leeds’ CitiPark hopes to encourage recycling by giving motorists a 20p parking voucher for every bottle they bring in

It seems a great idea: take plastic bottles along to a car park to recycle, help rid the world of plastic pollution and get money off the cost of parking. This is the scheme running at the Leeds Merrion Centre CitiPark. For a month-long trial period, the company will collect every plastic bottle of at least 500ml brought into the car park. The bottle will be recycled and the motorist will get a 20p car parking voucher for each one. The process itself is quite straightforward: hand them to the attendant for a discount before paying. But will it catch on?

“It’s been going really well,” says parking attendant Richard Bedford. “One chap came in with 30 bottles. He only needed 15 to pay for his parking, so he’s bringing the rest back next week.” Apart from such isolated success stories, though, the car park isn’t exactly besieged by bottle-laden motorists when I arrive. Bedford estimates an average day’s take at 10 to 20 bottles, but behind him is a full crate, and he says hundreds have been recycled so far.

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Newly digitised pictures shine light on the first British reconnaissance trip to Everest, in 1921.

A deep-sea swimming sea cucumber has been filmed in the Southern Ocean off East Antarctica for the first time.

Creature filmed off east Antartica using technology developed by Australian researchers

A deep-sea cucumber known as a “headless chicken monster” has been filmed in the Southern Ocean for the first time using camera technology developed by Australian researchers.

The creature was filmed off east Antarctica and it is the first time the species has been seen in the area. 

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George Eustice’s boast that government strategy is working called untrue by vets and animal specialists

Government claims that the controversial badger cull is reducing tuberculosis rates in cattle have been undermined by a group of leading vets and animal welfare experts who have shared data that, they say, confirms it has made no difference.

Last month the farming minister George Eustice said: “Reductions in TB cases in Somerset and Gloucestershire are evidence that our strategy is delivering results.” But the group, which includes Iain McGill, the former government vet who helped expose the BSE cover-up, Adam Grogan, head of wildlife at the RSPCA, and Mark Jones, head of policy at the Born Free Foundation, disagrees.

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For the second time in two months, a long-held conservative seat is lost to an independent campaigning on climate and energy. But don't expect the idiocy of the Coalition to stop.

The post Wentworth wipe-out won’t shift Coalition on climate and energy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Fish eaters advised to ‘Say No’ due to environmental concerns surrounding Tasmania’s salmon farming industry

It’s one of Australia’s – and the world’s – favourite fish but Tasmanian Atlantic salmon should be off the menu for now, according to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, publishers of Australia’s independent sustainable seafood guide.

On Wednesday, the AMCS downgraded the farmed fish’s rating from an amber “Think Twice” to a red “Say No” due to ongoing environmental concerns. The previous review was in 2015.

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European settlers suspected Australia's high tropical forests hid native rhododendrons. Stuart Worboys, Laboratory and Technical Support Officer, Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

It was feared that Luzia, a 12,000-year-old fossil, had been totally lost in the Brazil fire.

One tremor was magnitude 0.3, the level beyond which experts say fracking has to proceed with caution

A series of small earthquakes have been detected in Lancashire close to the site where major fracking operations began this week.

The British Geological Survey, which provides impartial advice on environmental processes, recorded four tremors in the vicinity of the energy firm Cuadrilla’s site on Preston New Road near Blackpool on Friday.

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