Around The Web

Faster EV uptake needs auto and policy makers to work together: Nissan

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-07-23 15:56
Nissan calls on governments, automakers and other key stakeholders to work together to drive the shift to electric vehicles in Asia and Oceania.
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War on Waste returns: Craig Reucassel dishes dirt on recycling crisis

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-07-23 15:46

Host of ABC sleeper hit of 2017 reflects achievements of season one, and what still needs to change

Who would have thought a show about garbage could be so compelling?

The success of last year’s sleeper hit War on Waste was a happy surprise to its presenter, Craig Reucassel, and the team behind the ABC TV show – not least because of how responsive audiences were to many of its suggestions. Sales of reusable coffee cups shot up, worm farm suppliers struggled to keep up with demand and the #BantheBag campaign helped to spur supermarkets to get rid of single-use plastic bags.

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Know your NEM: Gentailers give corporate Australia “the bird”

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-07-23 15:40
Australia's corporate renewable energy power purchase agreement market is taking off. But do gentailers care?
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‘We’ve suffered enough’: Durham locals fight new open-cast coal mine

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-07-23 15:30

The Banks Group mine is going ahead despite fears it will devastate the local environment

From the end of her garden June Davison can see and hear the heavy machinery stripping away the valley. Soon there will be explosions and dust to add to the 12 hour thrum of engines as the coal is stripped from below the earth.

After 40 years of local opposition that has helped keep this area of the Derwent valley in County Durham untouched, open-cast mining has begun between the villages of Dipton, Leadgate and Medomsley, once home to a deeply entrenched mining community around what was South Medomsley colliery.

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Renewables cheaper than coal, says Gupta, “it’s obvious”

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-07-23 15:18
For those who don't want to take AEMO's word for it, UK steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta has a message on the future of energy generation in Australia: It is no longer cheaper to make power from coal than it is from renewables, "and we will prove it."
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Country diary 1918: a word of support for the ragwort

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-07-23 14:30

23 July 1918 This beautiful weed attracts the summer brood of tortoiseshell butterflies just out from the chrysalis

The ragwort, a really beautiful weed, is out along the lane sides, but, perhaps thanks to women’s labour, is not over-abundant in our local fields. In Wales, where the fields are seldom as clean as they are in Cheshire, big rank ragworts and thistles dot the pastures, and often rise above the crops. The ragwort attracts the summer brood of small tortoiseshell butterflies just out from the chrysalis, but these showy flies visit it for its sweets and not as a food plant for the caterpillars. No one can class the tortoiseshell amongst destructive insects, for it feeds upon the common nettle, and thus helps to destroy a troublesome and prolific weed.

Related: Damned as dangerous but ragwort is full of life

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New Energy Solar to acquire 87.0 MW Beryl Solar Project in NSW

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-07-23 14:22
New Energy Solar has entered into binding agreements to acquire the Beryl Solar Farm (Beryl) from a subsidiary of First Solar, Inc.
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Protecting marine life from microplastics and marine debris

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2018-07-23 13:13
The Department has published a new Threat Abatement Plan for the impacts of marine debris on the vertebrate wildlife of Australia’s coasts and oceans.
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Protecting marine life from microplastics and marine debris

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2018-07-23 13:13
The Department has published a new Threat Abatement Plan for the impacts of marine debris on the vertebrate wildlife of Australia’s coasts and oceans.
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No, minister Canavan, coal will not be king for 20 more years

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-07-23 12:46
Despite the Coalition cheer-leading, data from AEMO and the Chief Economist shows quite graphically that thermal coal is in structural decline – in Australia and globally.
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Digging in the Pilbara and truffle hunting in the Victorian alps

ABC Environment - Mon, 2018-07-23 11:30
An archaeological dig unearths an ancient campfire; we go gardening in marginal country; young Rory has his heart set on a music career; and Charlie goes truffle hunting in the alps.
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Is ‘Zero Hour’ youth climate march a turning point, or more of the same?

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-07-23 11:05
Are children a source of hope where adults have failed? A youth climate march set for Washington DC this weekend raises the question: what new methods can young people use to boost climate action?
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How a solar farm in southeast England could bring a new dawn for renewables

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-07-23 10:49
The 350MW Cleve Hill solar farm near Kent aims to generate lowest cost electricity without subsidies. Success could be a game changer.
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Air-legal, all-electric “flying car” announced in the US

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-07-23 10:18
A fully electric, piloted "flying car" – it's true, watch the video! – has just qualified as an ultralight aircraft for use in the US.
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Recycled packaging 'may end up in landfill', warns watchdog

BBC - Mon, 2018-07-23 09:05
There is no guarantee that the products you recycle are actually recycled, the UK watchdog warns.
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UK's plastic waste may be dumped overseas instead of recycled

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-07-23 09:01

Millions of tons of plastic sent abroad for recycling may be being dumped in landfill

Millions of tons of waste plastic from British businesses and homes may be ending up in landfill sites across the world, the government’s spending watchdog has warned.

Huge amounts of packaging waste is being sent overseas on the basis that it will be recycled and turned into new products. However, concerns have been raised that in reality much of it is being dumped in sites from Turkey to Malaysia.

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Earth's resources consumed in ever greater destructive volumes

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-07-23 09:01

Study says the date by which we consume a year’s worth of resources is arriving faster

Humanity is devouring our planet’s resources in increasingly destructive volumes, according to a new study that reveals we have consumed a year’s worth of carbon, food, water, fibre, land and timber in a record 212 days.

As a result, the Earth Overshoot Day – which marks the point at which consumption exceeds the capacity of nature to regenerate – has moved forward two days to 1 August, the earliest date ever recorded.

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Remembering Antarctica's nuclear past with 'Nukey Poo'

The Conversation - Mon, 2018-07-23 06:07
For just ten years Antarctica was home to a nuclear power station called "Nukey Poo". Hanne E.F. Nielsen, PhD Candidate in Antarctic Representations, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Sanjeev Gupta: Coal power is no longer cheaper – and we'll prove it

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-07-23 04:00

The British billionaire investing in South Australia believes renewables are the future of energy, because it makes economic sense

The British billionaire who rescued the Whyalla steelworks from administration and is spending more than $2bn on clean energy and green steel developments in regional South Australia says most Australians are yet to grasp that solar power is now a cheaper option than new coal-fired electricity.

Sanjeev Gupta, an industrialist whose family-owned GFG Alliance group of companies has been credited with resurrecting Britain’s steel industry, says he considered investing in coal generation in the state’s Upper Spencer Gulf after buying Arrium’s steel mill last year but found solar backed by “firming” storage technologies made better economic sense.

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Collie council votes against cheaper solar because “we should be burning more coal”

RenewEconomy - Sun, 2018-07-22 19:18
Collie shire council, in the heart of West Australia’s last remaining coal mining district, votes against installing rooftop solar because “we should be burning more coal.”
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