Around The Web

Japanese basket pattern inspires new material

BBC - Tue, 2018-03-20 22:02
Researchers produce a metal with exotic electrical properties by mimicking a pattern from Japanese basket-weaving.
Categories: Around The Web

Meet the dogs being trained to sniff out looted ancient treasures

BBC - Tue, 2018-03-20 21:31
Dogs are being trained to detect ancient treasures in an attempt to tackle cultural heritage trafficking.
Categories: Around The Web

Last male northern white rhino dies in Kenya

BBC - Tue, 2018-03-20 21:13
Sudan died in a Kenyan conservancy at the age of 45, after months of ill health.
Categories: Around The Web

Fishermen: tell us what you think of the recent Brexit concessions

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 20:18

If you work in the UK fishing industry we’d like to hear what you think about the latest changes to affect fisheries

After pledging to repatriate control of UK fisheries and set quotas as part of core Brexit strategy, the government appears to have backed down in face of EU opposition. Instant return of control after Britain leaves the EU no longer seems possible, with vessels from Europe allowed to have continued access during the transition period after 29 March 2019.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Labor vows to block 'largest removal of marine area from conservation, ever'

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 18:53

Opposition condemns Coalition plan to open more recreational and commercial fishing areas

Labor says it will move to disallow new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government, branding the change the “largest removal of marine area from conservation, ever, from any government in the world”.

The new management plans were uploaded by officials on the federal register of legislation on Tuesday, cutting across a public announcement the Turnbull government had planned to make on Wednesday.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Children drawing more women in science

BBC - Tue, 2018-03-20 18:52
A US study shows that more children draw women scientists than they did in the 1960s and 1970s.
Categories: Around The Web

Shoestring expedition returns with wild photos of Sumatra

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 18:50

A shoestring expedition to one of the remotest places in Sumatra has returned with stunning photos of tigers, tapirs, clouded leopards among other rare species, large and small. Will they find orangutans next?

Last year a motley crew of conservationists, adventurers and locals trekked into one of the last unexplored regions of Sumatra. They did so with a mission: check camera traps and see what they could find. The team – organized by the small NGO, Habitat ID – came back with biological gold: photos of Sumatran tigers, Malayan tapirs, and sun bears. They also got the first record of the Sunda clouded leopard in the area and found a specimen of a little-known legless reptile called Wegner’s glass lizard. But most tantalizingly of all is what they didn’t find, but still suspect is there: a hidden population of orangutans that would belong to the newly described species, Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis).

“The trek into the interior was fraught with hordes of leaches, wasps, cliffs, river-crossings, and trackless jungle, and it pushed everyone on the team to their limits,” Greg McCann, the head of Habitat ID and a team member, said, clearly relishing the adventure to an undisclosed area they call Hadabaun Hills.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Last male northern white rhino is put down

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 18:00

Hopes for species rest on IVF with two females after death of Sudan, the ‘gentle giant’

The last male northern white rhinoceros has died, leaving only two females with which conservationists hope to save the species from extinction.

Sudan, the “gentle giant” who lived in the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, was put down on Monday after the pain from a degenerative illness became too great. He is survived by his daughter and granddaughter.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Rhino dies: Sudan was the last male northern white

BBC - Tue, 2018-03-20 17:29
Sudan's death at the age of 45 leaves only two females of his subspecies alive in the world.
Categories: Around The Web

Antony Albanese on bushfire climate row

ABC Environment - Tue, 2018-03-20 17:06
The Greens say climate change is to blame for to the bushfires in New South Wales and Victoria.
Categories: Around The Web

Survey reveals which Easter eggs use the most packaging

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 17:01

Plastic and cardboard packaging makes up more than a quarter of product weight in some of the UK’s best-selling chocolate eggs


Packaging alone accounts for up to a quarter, on average, of the total weight of the most popular Easter eggs on sale on the High Street, new research by a consumer group has revealed.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Fish and chips to curry: UK's favourite dishes at risk from climate change, research shows

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 16:30

Earth Hour campaign aims to raise awareness of the impact global warming could have on food supplies, from cod stocks to the rice and tomatoes used to make chicken tikka masala


Some of the UK’s best-loved dishes – including fish and chips and chicken tikka masala – could be under threat as a result of climate change, environmentalists warn in a new report on Tuesday.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Can climate litigation save the world?

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 16:00

Courts are a new front line of climate action with cases against governments and oil firms spiralling, and while victories have so far been rare the pressure for change is growing


Global moves to tackle climate change through lawsuits are poised to break new ground this week, as groups and individuals seek to hold governments and companies accountable for the damage they are causing.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Country diary: a landscape coming in from the cold

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 15:30

Claxton, Norfolk: A lone blackbird offers hope of spring in the snowstorm’s Arctic silence

Even now there are several roadside heaps of it where the snowdrifts had been so high that we were entirely cut off for three days. These vestiges hardly conjure the power of that extraordinary storm, but it has been fascinating to track the whole system as a single organism.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Marine heatwave set off 'carbon bomb' in world's largest seagrass meadow

The Guardian - Tue, 2018-03-20 15:08

22% of seagrass in Western Australia’s Shark Bay was lost after 2010-11 heatwave, causing release of up to 9m tonnes of carbon

A marine heatwave in Western Australia in 2010 set off a massive “carbon bomb”, damaging the world’s largest seagrass meadow, releasing millions of tonnes of carbon that had been collected for thousands of years below the surface.

Although Australia doesn’t currently count carbon released from damaged seagrass meadows in its official greenhouse gas emissions, if it did, the results mean those figures might need to be revised upwards by more than 20%.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

The unholy alliance that explains why renewables are trouncing nuclear

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2018-03-20 14:10
On top of the fact that it is astoundingly expensive, a number of cultural realities lie behind the problems being experienced by nuclear power.
Categories: Around The Web

AEMO wants new rules to keep up with shift to renewables, rising temps

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2018-03-20 14:06
AEMO says NEM is not fit for purpose any more, given changes to generation mix, uptake of solar and storage, and soaring temperatures that lessen reliability of conventional generation.
Categories: Around The Web

Uber self-driving fatality raises questions about autonomous vehicles

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2018-03-20 14:04
Uber puts self-driving trials on hold after a pedestrian was hit and killed by one of its cars in autonomous mode.
Categories: Around The Web

WA-designed clear glass solar windows gear up for production

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2018-03-20 12:19
WA company gears up to commercialise its "world-first" clear glass solar windows, with listing on ASX.
Categories: Around The Web

Journey to zero emissions electricity: How hard can it be?

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2018-03-20 12:13
In final installment of series, we consider improving efficient and productive use of electricity, and the effect this might have on national emissions.
Categories: Around The Web

Pages

Subscribe to Sustainable Engineering Society aggregator - Around The Web