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Solar heads to 1c/kWh before 2020 after Mexico sets record low

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-20 09:18
Australia solar research leader Martin Green says solar heading to a price of 1c/kWh before 2020 after latest record auction result.
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Replacing Liddell coal plant with clean energy $1.3bn cheaper – analysis

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-11-20 08:53

A clean energy package will have a zero pollution outcome compared with 40m tonnes under Coalition’s plan to extend the NSW plant, UTS modelling reveals

Renewables could reliably contribute 50% to power grid, Finkel report finds

Replacing the Liddell coal power station with clean energy technologies would slash pollution and be at least $1.3bn cheaper than the Turnbull government’s plan to extend the life of the New South Wales plant by five years, a new analysis has found.

A second report released on Monday also found Australia has the potential to lead the world in developing large and home-scale energy storage systems if public uncertainty can be overcome.

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How the International Energy Agency is steering world to climate disaster

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-20 08:52
International Energy Agency likes to present itself as a climate champion, but it is in fact steering the energy system towards catastrophic levels of warming,
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COAG: Doctors call on states to reject the NEG

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-20 08:45
Australian health experts have written to all State and Territory leaders ahead of the COAG meeting this week, strongly urging them to reject the National Energy Guarantee, and establish national energy policies that will reduce the alarming rates of sickness and deaths across the nation.
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Country diary 1917: drizzle and the dripping, decaying wood

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-11-20 08:30

20 November 1917 The few leaves which still remain upon the branches hang like soiled and tattered rags

The wonderful colouring of a few weeks ago has vanished, and the few leaves which still remain upon the branches hang like soiled and tattered rags; the litter below the trees is full of moisture, blackening with decay. For once the wood is positively untidy. Windfall boughs and twigs, green and red with fungoid growths, lie everywhere, the larger branches holding the withered leaves; the healthy, living tree is the first to shed its foliage. A red campion here and there and a few thistles are the only visible flowers; the latter are bravely open, though their stalks, wilting slightly, are without a single living leaf. The osiers stand a foot deep in water, for the ditches have overflowed, converting the withy bed into a lake from which the willows rise, many islands.

Related: Why we should celebrate winter woodland – not just the Christmas tree

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Destructive Arundel bypass route would be a national scandal

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-11-20 05:09
Emma Tristram says the legislation to protect ancient woodland may have the perverse effect of causing the most damaging option to be chosen

Thank you to Patrick Barkham for highlighting the destructive insanity of the Arundel bypass scheme (The road to rural oblivion, 14 November). He mentions ancient woodland and says it needs legal protection. Actually ancient woodland (ie, wooded since 1600) already has legal protection, and “compensation planting” is required – the ratio is decided by English Nature, but may be a multiple of seven or even up to 30 times the area taken.

The legislation to protect ancient woodland may have the perverse effect of causing the most damaging option to be chosen. Highways England has run a public consultation, which blatantly favours the route through Binsted woods, 100 hectares of superb quality semi-natural broadleaved woodland. The woods have been here since the Domesday Book – huge, mysterious, unmanaged, full of fallen trees that have regrown from horizontal, and an incredibly rich hotspot for rare wildlife. But some parts have had a cleared period in the last 400 years, so are not designated as ancient woodland.

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Delhi suffers second smog crisis in 12 months, as wake-up calls go unheeded

The Conversation - Mon, 2017-11-20 05:08
India's capital New Delhi has been plunged into smog, a year after suffering a similar crisis. Without an end to crop burning, the problems with smog will only continue. Vijay Koul, Honorary fellow, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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UK trade minister lobbied Brazil on behalf of oil giants

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-11-20 02:38

A telegram obtained by Greenpeace shows that Greg Hands met a Brazilian minister to discuss relaxation of tax and environmental regulation

Britain successfully lobbied Brazil on behalf of BP and Shell to address the oil giants’ concerns over Brazilian taxation, environmental regulation and rules on using local firms, government documents reveal.

The UK’s trade minister travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo in March for a visit with a “heavy focus” on hydrocarbons, to help British energy, mining and water companies win business in Brazil.

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New Finkel report finds no need to panic about energy storage

RenewEconomy - Sun, 2017-11-19 23:02
New Finkel report says energy storage important, and represents a huge opportunity for Australia, but there is no reason to panic. Even at 50% wind and solar the need for storage is modest, and much could come from households.
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The eco guide to the cod bounceback

The Guardian - Sun, 2017-11-19 16:00

It was great news for fish and chips fans when North Sea cod was certified sustainable. Steady on though, there are still things to worry about at sea

Here’s a food truth: most Britons are happy to say “cod and chips, please” without even thinking about the sustainability impact of our favourite Friday night supper. Our love of white flaky fish has been a nightmare for fish campaigners. North Sea cod stocks plummeted from 270,000 tonnes in the 1970s to 44,000 tonnes in the early 2000s.

North Sea cod stocks plummeted from 270,000 tonnes in the 1970s to 44,000 tonnes in the early 2000s

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Bosnia's silent killer: The coal industry

BBC - Sun, 2017-11-19 10:17
The Balkan country has the world's second highest death rate caused by air pollution.
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Floods: How to stay safe when disaster strikes

BBC - Sun, 2017-11-19 10:12
Floods have been a deadly staple of 2017. But can you protect yourself against the natural disaster?
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Life saver numbers drop over fear of crocodiles

ABC Environment - Sun, 2017-11-19 08:05
Crocodiles have entered the fray in the Queensland election campaign with fear of crocodile attacks being blamed for a drop in membership numbers at Surf Life Saving Clubs in Far North Queensland.
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Weather watchers: life on remote Willis Island

ABC Environment - Sun, 2017-11-19 06:30
Remote Willis Island, in the middle of the Coral Sea, is home to colonies of seabirds, green sea turtle nests and four staff from the the Bureau of Meteorology
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The world's biggest lithium battery farm

BBC - Sat, 2017-11-18 17:59
The plant in the US state of California stores enough energy to power 20,000 homes for four hours.
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Country diary: pines that went to Passchendaele

The Guardian - Sat, 2017-11-18 15:30

Milkham Inclosure, New Forest In the wartime effort of 1917 timber from this woodland fell to axes and became the battlefield planks trodden perhaps by the forest dwellers themselves

Today we wander through Milkham’s pines in an atmosphere of autumnal tranquillity. During the first world war the scene would have been very different. The ring of axes would have cut through the air as still more trees needed for the war effort were taken down. A few mother trees were spared to provide seedlings for regeneration.

One hundred years ago last week, after appalling cost, the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele, ended. Pictures taken at the time show Australian gunners walking on duckboards across seas of mud, heading for the frontline through stick-like trees. They could have been treading on planks cut from pines that once grew in Milkham. A sombre thought.

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Small steps forward as UN climate talks end in Bonn

BBC - Sat, 2017-11-18 14:40
UN climate talks finish with progress on technical issues but with questions on carbon cuts unresolved.
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Trump puts elephant trophy imports on hold

BBC - Sat, 2017-11-18 12:52
The US president's move comes a day after US hunters were told they could import elephant trophies.
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'It's a delicate place': Nasa captures 20 years of Earth's seasonal changes – video

The Guardian - Sat, 2017-11-18 12:50

A Nasa oceanographer explains how the US space agency successfully captured 20 years of changing seasons to form a striking new global map. The projection of the Earth and its biosphere is derived from two decades of satellite data from September 1997 to September 2017

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Cane toads to get the Crispr treatment

ABC Environment - Sat, 2017-11-18 11:05
Altering the gene which codes for production of a key enzyme could reduce the toad’s effect on wildlife.
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