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A door-opening method that involves using the "wrong" hand should be taught to drivers, groups say.

The aging Liddell power station has become a crucial part of the Government's energy plan, but the Liddell's owner is standing in the way.

Figures from the government are seen as a milestone in the advance of renewable energy.

Green groups say record low price should sound death knell for Hinkley Point C after subsidy auction sets price for windpower below even lowest forecast

Offshore windfarms are to be built for a record low price in the UK early next decade, after developers bid far more aggressively than expected for a multimillion-pound pot of government subsidies.

Industry watchers had expected the guaranteed price for power from windfarms around Britain’s coast to come in somewhere between £70 and £80 per megawatt hour, below the £92.50 for the nuclear power station at Hinkley Point.

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Hurricanes, like Irma which has just hit Florida, command more attention because they have a strong visual identity and are often given human names and attributes. Reuters/Carlos Barria

The devastating scenes of destruction and flooding in the Bahamas and the southern states of the US have captivated the world for many weeks now. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and Hurricane Jose soon to follow, have stolen headlines around the world, as they break records and provide a deluge of spectacle and image … the main ingredients for tabloid reporting.

Of course, as far as the fatalities they have caused, which are now into the hundreds, they have not been as dangerous as the under-reported monsoons that devastated India, Nepal and Bangladesh a few weeks ago, with death tolls into the thousands. But, in the oligopolised world of the news wires of AFP, Reuters and AP, threats to developed nations push well ahead of tragedy in the third world, an imperialist bias that reflects the global hierarchy of nation states as defined by news services.

But is also true that hurricanes (typhoons and cyclones) command more attention because they have a strong visual identity. Unlike monsoonal rains, they are also endowed with a personality.

For a start, each hurricane is given a name, and often they are referred to as “monsters” that have some kind of personality. “Irma is unpredictable, ferocious, powerful”, and so on. Unlike monsoons, hurricanes are to be feared, almost like they are preying on humans.

But in the US, these same hurricanes have been the subject of ridicule and religious divinity.

In between all of the suffering in Texas and now in Florida, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who broadcasts out of Palm Beach, Florida, had labelled Hurricane Irma a kind of fake news. Limbaugh, a strident Trump supporter, has sought to persuade his listeners that these Hurricanes are wildly exaggerated, potentially endangering those who may not take seriously the official emergency weather warning. He said:

There is a desire to advance this climate change agenda, and hurricanes are one of the fastest and best ways to do it … All you need is to create the fear and panic accompanied by talk that climate change is causing hurricanes to become more frequent and bigger and more dangerous, and you create the panic, and it’s mission accomplished, agenda advanced.

Limbaugh claims that hurricanes bring together three unlikely beneficiaries: climate change activists, television broadcasters and retailers, the latter two having a “symbiotic relationship”.

For Limbaugh, TV stations, which receive much advertising revenue from retailers, become fixated with the hurricane, causing panic and mass raids on retail supplies of food, water, batteries and fuel. For the radio shock jock, this creates a vicious circle of interests more important than the hurricane itself.

Of course, Limbaugh is at least partly right. Tabloid television is most at home in covering violent events, whether this is extreme weather, terrorism, or violent crime. The more images it has about these events, the more it will cover them.

However, that these same broadcasters will make any significant link to climate change has not been a trend in either the US or Australia. It may increase audience concern about climate change, but not really their understanding that the more energy you have in the oceans, the more potential there is for powerful storms. Extreme weather is indeed the best time to communicate climate change, but it has to be done in a way that increases audience understanding of the causes, impacts and projections for the future.

It also has to be done in a way that demonstrates what is so different about today’s extreme weather. With Hurricane Irma, for example, what has amazed climatologists, is that it was one of a trio of hurricanes that were threatening land at the same time. Irma itself matched the force of Katrina in terrajoules of energy. Then there are the scenes of Irma literally sucking up the ocean around beaches and changing the shape of coastlines during that period. The forces involved are unprecedented in the modern record.

Yet, it seems that the more extreme the nature of the hurricanes, the more extreme are the reactions of climate denialists. And here we can point to the growing number of television evangelists who are also getting some attention out of the hurricane. Both Harvey and Irma have been hailed as biblical events that have wrought retribution on those who have not followed the path of god. Televangelist Jim Bakker and Pastor Rick Joyner observed last week that “storms don’t happen by accident”. The Houston flood was from God and if, according to Pastor Kevin Swanson, the supreme court would rule abortion and gay marriage to be illegal, Houston would have averted a disaster.

Conservative social commentator Anne Coulter, tweeted to her 1.7 million followers that Houston’s recent baptism was more likely to be payback for having elected a lesbian mayor in its recent past than it was related to climate change.

Doubtless, the fact that Hurricane Irma has spared the southern White House, Mar-a-Lago from a direct hit, will also be comfort to President Trump’s evangelist supporters. The luxurious resort is again in the news, but this time for not answering calls for Trump to open it as a shelter for displaced Hurricane victims.

Oh, and Rush Limbaugh fled from his home in Palm Beach, two days before Irma hit.

Locals blame coca interests for the state’s broken promise on protecting Tipnis national park, biodiversity hotspot and home to thousands of indigenous people

When Ovidio Teco’s Amazon homeland was declared “untouchable” by the Bolivian government in 2011, his war had been won.

The concerns of people like him had been listened to: their beautiful and ancient land would not be carved in two by a 190-mile highway.

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Barnaby Joyce seems to think that switching off a coal plant in 2022 will cause the lights to go out in 2017. Is there any hope that the smart conversations going on behind the scenes will ever be reflected in policy? Don't count on it.

Photon Energy Australia plans to develop 146MW solar farm on outskirts of Bathurst have gone before NSW Department of Planning for approval.

Five companies short-listed to tender for job developing up to 450MW renewable energy hub in Qld coal centre of Gladstone.

Little Bradley Ponds, South Devon Taxonomy tussles aside, spotting any grass snake can be far from easy, and I circled the ponds several times

This small nature reserve was my final stop: a tranquil oasis surrounded by woodland and set back from the road near Bovey Tracey in south Devon. I had spent the morning visiting gardens in search of grass snakes, nosing around compost heaps and scanning the edges of ponds without luck. Reptiles known to inhabit one glorious wildlife-friendly property on the edge of Buckfastleigh had kept out of sight, while nearby locations offered up handsome slow worms, but not the secretive species I was after.

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Governments, understandably, want to make sure the lights stay on. But now is the time for perspective, not panic.

Coalition has known about bidding practices for years, but it has taken AGL's refusal to play ball on Liddell to prompt it into action.

Despite Finkel, despite our COP 21 obligations, Turnbull does nothing. No electricity policy, no vehicle emission standards, no policy in other areas of the economy. Worst of all, the Liddell negotiations are a gross misuse of the AEMO reports for political purposes.

Researchers have reviewed evidence for wildlife disturbance and current drone policies and found that the law is playing catch-up with emerging technology. Pip Wallace, CC BY-ND

The drone market is booming and it is changing the way we use airspace, with some unforeseen consequences.

The uptake of remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) has been swift. But despite their obvious benefits, concerns are growing about impacts on wildlife.

In our research we investigate whether regulation is keeping pace with the speed of technological change. We argue that it doesn’t, and we suggest that threatened species might need extra protection to ensure they aren’t harmed by drones.

RPA management

Drones are useful tools for conservation biologists. They allow them to survey inaccessible terrain and assist with many challenging tasks, from seeding forests to collecting whale snot.

But researchers are also discovering that RPAs have negative impacts on wildlife, ranging from temporary disturbances to fatal collisions.

Disturbance from vehicles and other human activity are known to affect wildlife, but with the speed that drones have entered widespread use, their effects are only just starting to be studied.

So far, the regulatory response has focused squarely on risks to human health, safety and privacy, with wildlife impacts only rarely taken into account, and even then usually in a limited way.

Read more: The age of drones has arrived quicker than the laws that govern them

It is not uncommon for regulatory gaps to arise when new technology is introduced. The rapid growth of drone technology raises a series of questions for environmental law and management.

We have reviewed evidence for wildlife disturbance and current drone policies and found that the law is playing catch-up with emerging technology.

Impacts on wildlife range from disturbance to fatal collisions. Pip Wallace, CC BY-ND

This is particularly important in New Zealand, where many threatened species live outside protected reserves. Coastal areas are of particular concern. They provide habitat for numerous threatened and migrating species but also experience high rates of urban development and recreational activity. Different species also respond very differently to the invasion of their airspace.

Where “flying for fun” and pizza delivery by drone combine with insufficient control, there is potential for unanticipated consequences to wildlife.

RPA and red tape

When competing interests collide, regulation requires particular care. Any rules on RPAs need to cater for a wide range of users, with varying skills and purposes, and enable beneficial applications while protecting wildlife.

There are strong social and economic drivers for the removal of red tape. Australia and the United States have introduced permissive regimes for lower-risk use, including recreational activity. In New Zealand, RPAs are considered as aircraft and controlled by civil aviation legislation.

Read more: New drone rules: with more eyes in the sky, expect less privacy

Wildlife disturbance, or other impacts on the environment, are not specifically mentioned in these rules and control options depend on existing wildlife law.

The lack of consideration of wildlife impacts in civil aviation rules creates a gap, which is accompanied by an absence of policy guidance. As a consequence, the default position for limiting RPA operations comes from the general requirement for property owner consent.

RPA and spatial controls

RPA operators wanting to fly over conservation land have to get a permit from the Department of Conservation, which has recognised wildlife disturbance as a potential issue.

On other public land, we found that local authorities take a patchy and inconsistent approach to RPA activity, with limited consideration of effects on wildlife. On private land, efforts to control impacts to wildlife depend on the knowledge of property owners.

Protection of wildlife from RPA impacts is further confounded by limitations of legislation that governs the protection of wildlife and resource use and development. The Wildlife Act 1953 needs updating to provide more effective control of disturbance effects to species.

Marine mammals get some protection from aircraft disturbance under species-specific legislation. Other than that, aircraft are exempt from regulation under the Resource Management Act, which only requires noise control for airports. As a result, tools normally used to control spatial impacts, such as protective zoning, setbacks and buffers for habitat and species are not available.

This makes sense for aircraft flying at 8,000m or more, but drones use space differently, are controlled locally, and generate local effects. It is also clear that equipment choices and methods of RPA operation can reduce risks to wildlife.

Keeping drones out of sensitive spaces

Dunedin City Council in New Zealand recently approved a bylaw banning drones from ecologically sensitive areas. This is a good start but we think a more consistent and universal approach is required to protect threatened species.

As a starter, all RPA operations should be guided by specific policy and made available on civil aviation websites, addressing impacts to wildlife and RPA methods of operation. In addition, we advocate for research into regulatory measures requiring, where appropriate, distance setbacks of RPA operations from threatened and at risk species.

Distance setbacks are already used in the protection of marine mammals from people, aircraft and other sources of disturbance. Setbacks benefit species by acting as a mobile shield in contrast to a fixed area protection.

Congestion of space is a condition of modern life, and the forecast exponential growth of RPA in the environment indicates that space will become even more contested in future, both in the air and on the ground. We argue that stronger measures that recognise the potential impacts on wildlife, how this may differ from species to species, and how this may be concentrated in certain locations, are required to deliver better protection for threatened species.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

Bees usually get nectar from flowers, but sometimes they steal it from the nests of other bees. Flickr/Michael Cheng, CC BY-SA

This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky!

Do bees ever accidentally sting other bees? Evie, age 8, Stanwell Park

Hi Evie,

Your question is super interesting. I have spent many years studying and working with different kinds of bees and I’ve never seen a bee accidentally sting another bee - but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. So, I’ve done some reading to try to find out if anybody else has.

There are many different kinds of bees and some live in groups with other bees. The most famous of the bees that live in big groups are honey bees (probably because their honey is so tasty).

Read more: Curious Kids: Why are some shells smooth and some shells corrugated?

Honey bees that live in the same hive are called nestmates because they share a nest. The queen bee lays all the eggs in the hive and has mostly daughters. So usually nestmates are sister-bees that get along very well. They cooperate to feed their little sisters and brothers, collect food, build and protect their nests from animals (or bees from other nests) that want to eat them or their honey.

Because sometimes honey bees steal nectar (the main ingredient for making honey) from other nests, some bees, called guard bees, stand at the door and sniff the bees that land there with their antennae. If the newly landed bee smells like she belongs in the nest, the guard lets her nestmate in. If not, the guard will bite and sting the intruder bee, preventing the intruder from entering the nest.

Read more: How home security resembles dancing honeybees

In experiments where scientists investigate how bees tell whether a bee is their nestmate or not, bees sometimes fail to recognise their nestmates and end up accidentally stinging their sisters! They also sometimes let bees into the hive that are not their nestmates.

So yes, Evie, when trying to defend their nests from intruders, bees sometimes accidentally sting their nestmate sisters, but only because they mistake their sisters for intruders.

I can’t say that I blame them. I’m not sure I’d be so good at recognising my sisters if I had thousands of them.

Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:

* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au
* Tell us on Twitter by tagging @ConversationEDU with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
* Tell us on Facebook

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Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.

Marianne Peso has received past funding from the Australian Produce Council and currently works for the Australian Research Centre-funded Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Fruit Fly Biosecurity Innovation.

The last of the forest songbirds — Indonesia.

South Australia abandons plans for energy security target this summer after AEMO intervention on gas plants, and due to lack of competition in market.

Is this Hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere more severe than previous ones?

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 14 September 1917

Already a peacock butterfly has selected our curtains for winter quarters, but it is early for this fly to be going into hibernation, and many are still on the wing, settling on the scabious and ragworts in the lanes or the flowers in our gardens. Perhaps the yellowing foliage of the sycamore and showers of curled, crisp beech leaves already down had given it a warning; it had a duty to fulfil: a long death-like slumber and a short flight next spring to find the young nettles and lay its eggs, thus linking up the years. It is many years since peacocks and red admirals were so abundant as they are now; everywhere people are struck by the numbers, not only locally nor even in other parts of England. A friend in France writes:– “The crops here are barbed wire, thistles, and nettles; I don’t know what the first produces, but the two last have brought out great lots of painted ladies, red admirals, peacocks, and a positive swarm of small tortoiseshells.” The weeds of the war-scarred, untilled land have produced one beautiful crop.

Related: Red Admiral spotting: desperately seeking a British butterfly revival

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Exclusive: Special rapporteur’s mission finds government has violated obligation to protect people’s lives and health

The UK government is “flouting” its duty to protect the lives and health of its citizens from illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution, according to the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights related to toxic waste.

Baskut Tuncak issued his warning after a fact-finding mission to the UK in January at the invitation of the government in a report that has been shared exclusively with the Guardian before it is presented to the UN human rights council this week.

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