Around The Web

Australia's draft 'Strategy for nature' doesn't cut it. Here are nine ways to fix it

The Conversation - Fri, 2018-03-16 05:07
Most of Australia's plants and animals are found nowhere else on Earth. This remarkable biodiversity requires a bolder, brighter conservation vision. Euan Ritchie, Associate Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Bek Christensen, Vice-President, Ecological Society of Australia, Queensland University of Technology Bill Bateman, Senior Lecturer, Curtin University Dale Nimmo, Associate professor/ARC DECRA fellow, Charles Sturt University Don Driscoll, Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, Deakin University Grant Wardell-Johnson, Associate Professor, Environmental Biology, Curtin University Noel D Preece, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow at Charles Darwin and, James Cook University Sarah Luxton, PhD Candidate, Curtin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
Categories: Around The Web

Changing environment influenced human evolution

BBC - Fri, 2018-03-16 04:11
New evidence from Kenya suggests that local climate change drove early human innovation.
Categories: Around The Web

Endangered sharks, dolphins and rays killed by shark net trial

The Guardian - Fri, 2018-03-16 03:00

Only one target shark caught in NSW nets in two months, while 55 other marine creatures killed or trapped

Shark nets on the New South Wales north coast have caught just a single target shark in the past two months, while continuing to trap or kill dolphins, turtles, and protected marine life.

A single bull shark was caught in the nets around Ballina in January and February, while 55 other animals were either killed or trapped.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Gupta gets $10 million SA loan to trump Tesla’s big battery

RenewEconomy - Fri, 2018-03-16 02:42
$10 million loan from SA Government to help Sanjeev Gupta steal crown of "world's biggest lithium ion battery" from Tesla's Elon Musk.
Categories: Around The Web

Awkward questions about biodiversity | Letters

The Guardian - Fri, 2018-03-16 02:41
Academics and environmental campaigners from the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network say challenging questions about confronting the risk to global biodiversity were left unanswered by a recent Guardian briefing article

Damian Carrington are to be congratulated on a wide-ranging and informative article on the urgency and scale of the current global threat to biodiversity and the Guardian (What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?, theguardian.com, 12 March). However, we of the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network have reservations about the article’s diagnosis of its causes, and proposals for addressing the crisis.

First, to say “we” or “human activity” is responsible for biodiversity loss sidesteps the more serious challenge of identifying the specific socio-cultural, and, more centrally, economic drivers of destruction. Second, to slip easily from population rises to industrial development, housing and farming as the causes of the destruction of wild areas evades critical questions about what sort of industry, producing what sort of consumer goods and what kind of farming and food distribution system – let alone questions as to who has the power to decide and who gets to consume and who doesn’t.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

New oil threat looms over England's national park land, campaigners warn

The Guardian - Fri, 2018-03-16 02:21

More than 170,000 acres of protected countryside in the south-east face risk of drilling

More than 170,000 acres of protected countryside, including national park land, in the south-east of England are at risk from a new wave of oil drilling, environmental campaigners have warned.

Under threat are areas of outstanding natural beauty in the Weald, which runs between the north and south downs, and the South Downs national park, Greenpeace said.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Tesla says Energy Security Board needs to catch up with battery technology

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 20:42
Tesla says National Energy Guarantee needs to be much more ambitious, and the Energy Security Board needs to catch up with technologies like battery storage.
Categories: Around The Web

Who owns water? The US landowners putting barbed wire across rivers

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-15 20:00

New Mexico is a battleground in the fight over once public waterways, sparking fears it could set a national precedent

As Scott Carpenter and a few friends paddled down the Pecos river in New Mexico last May, taking advantage of spring run-off, the lead boater yelled out and made a swirling hand motion over his head in the universal signal to pull over to shore. The paddlers eddied out in time to avoid running straight through three strings of barbed wire obstructing the river.

Swinging in the wind, the sign hanging from the fence read “PRIVATE PROPERTY: No Trespassing”.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Hawking's warnings: His predictions

BBC - Thu, 2018-03-15 17:26
How Stephen Hawking used his recognition to highlight challenges and existential threats for humanity.
Categories: Around The Web

Camera attached to a minke whale captures rare footage – video

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-15 16:26

For the first time ever, scientists in Antarctica have attached a camera to a minke – one of the most poorly understood of all the whale species.  The camera (attached with suction cups) slid down the side of the animal – but stayed attached – providing remarkable video of the way it feeds.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Electrolux seeks to power Adelaide factory with solar and battery storage

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 16:17
Electrolux wants to power its only remaining Australian factory with a combination of 2.5MW of solar PV and 500kW battery storage.
Categories: Around The Web

UK car industry must pay up for toxic air 'catastrophe', super-inquiry finds

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-15 16:01

Unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs demands polluters pay for air pollution causing ‘national health emergency’

The car industry must pay millions of pounds towards solving the UK’s toxic air crisis under the “polluter pays” principle, according to an unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs.

The MPs call the poisonous air that causes 40,000 early deaths a year a “national health emergency” and are scathing about the government’s clean air plans. These judged illegal three times in the high court, with the latest plan condemned as “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Country diary: this landscape has little to offer a shy fieldfare

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-15 15:30

Crook, County Durham: starving birds lose their inhibitions if apples are available in gardens

The steep climb from the start of the Deerness Valley Way follows the route of an old rope-worked incline where, a century ago, a stationary engine on the hilltop hauled railway wagons up from Bankfoot coke works. Today it was hard work hauling ourselves up the hill, with every footstep sinking into thawing snow that was still knee-deep in places.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

CEFC backs push for solar and storage in all new-build homes

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 14:57
CEFC commits $90m debt finance to Mirvac plan to build more than 300 family homes, each with built-in solar and battery storage.
Categories: Around The Web

Six months overdue, Victoria battery storage tender announcement still “imminent”

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 14:46
Victorian government says winners of 100MWh energy storage auction to be announced "very, very soon."
Categories: Around The Web

Trump’s new economics director is climate denier who thinks animals can ‘snuggle’ under pipelines

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 14:44
President Donald Trump names CNBC host Larry Kudlow as new director of the National Economic Council, adding yet another climate science denier to the White House.
Categories: Around The Web

South Australia’s renewable energy future hanging by a thread

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 14:43
Just two days out from South Australia's state poll, the result is in the balance, and so too is the fate of its status as a world leader in renewable energy. The outcome will also have huge bearing on the pace of the energy transition for the whole of the country.
Categories: Around The Web

Five myths about South Australia’s renewable energy

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 14:29
The South Australia state election is two days away, so it's time to debunk some of the favourite renewable energy myths that are doing the rounds.
Categories: Around The Web

JinkoSolar speaks about Solar Cell Technology Roadmap at PV CellTech Conference in Malaysia

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 13:02
The conference, hosted by one of the world’s leading PV media groups – PV Tech, seeks to explore key issues driving solar cell production changes and advancement in solar cell technology.
Categories: Around The Web

ARENA launches $12.5 million distributed energy resources funding initiative

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-15 12:58
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) today announced a $12.5 million funding initiative for pilot projects and studies to integrate distributed energy resources (DER) into the electricity system.
Categories: Around The Web

Pages

Subscribe to Sustainable Engineering Society aggregator - Around The Web