Around The Web

Serbian social media users mock city's tribute to the first man in space.

Next stage of planning process for Anglesey site postponed as effect on tern colonies is assessed

Plans for a nuclear power station on the Welsh island of Anglesey have been delayed by concerns over the plant’s impact on colonies of protected seabirds.

The proposed twin reactors at Wylfa were given the green light by the UK’s nuclear regulator in December, with backers hoping to win financial support from the government. The Welsh plant would have a capacity of 3GW, similar to the 3.2GW of the nuclear power station being built at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

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From chlorine to novichok, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon takes us through the history of chemical weapons.

The media watchdog says the ex-chancellor was "not sufficiently challenged" during a radio interview.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is grappling this week to secure an initial strategy to address shipping emissions, with countries edging towards agreeing a carbon-intensity goal initially and only later committing to absolute emission cuts and potentially using carbon markets.

Ofcom says interviewer failed to challenge controversial claims including that there had been no increase in extreme weather events

BBC Radio 4 broke impartiality rules by failing to sufficiently challenge climate change denier Nigel Lawson’s controversial claims in an interview, the broadcasting watchdog has ruled.

Lord Lawson appeared on a Radio 4 programme last summer denying the concept of climate change, which prompted complaints from the Green party, and prominent scientists Brian Cox and Jim Al-Khalili, who said it was “irresponsible and highly misleading” to imply there was still a debate around the science supporting it.

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Tip turkey, dumpster chook, rubbish raptor – the Australian white ibis goes by many unflattering names. But it is a true urban success story, scavenging to survive in cities across Australia as wetlands have been lost. Wildlife photographer Rick Stevens captured them in Sydney

• See the rest of our Australian cities week series here

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China’s climate change office has asked for assistance from the power industry to develop realtime CO2 emissions data reporting for power stations covered by the national emissions trading scheme, a move that if successful would make it the world’s first carbon market to deploy such equipment.

A government-funded financing vehicle in China’s second-biggest coal-producing province has teamed up with the local carbon exchange to leverage public and private capital targeting carbon trading and clean industrial projects in a bid to cut its reliance on coal.

Join us as we take a drive through this week's news around regional and rural Australia.

Report warns carbon footprint of heavy emitter cement companies must be reduced sharply in order to meet Paris climate goals

Greenhouse gas emissions from cement production must be reduced sharply if the world is to meet the climate change goals set out in the Paris agreement, a new report has suggested.

Making cement and concrete, which is the most consumed product in the world after water, entails substantial emissions of carbon dioxide, from the chemical processes involved. While manufacturers have for years been seeking ways to reduce this or capture the carbon produced, and to make cement production more energy efficient, the results have failed to keep pace with the need to cut carbon emissions.

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The annual extra now compared with the early 1800s has a water volume twice that of the Dead Sea.

Illegal pigeon hunting across Samoa is risking the extinction of the country’s national bird: the little dodo or manumea. Will this little-known island pigeon suffer the same fate as its namesake?

Nearly two hundred years after the extinction of the dodo, Sir William Jardin – a Scottish naturalist and bird-aficionado – described another odd, bulky, island pigeon. From the island of Samoa, this one was distinguished by a massive, curving bill that sported tooth-like serrations on its lower mandible. Given the strangeness of the creature, Jardine set it in its own genus and dubbed it Didunculus – the little dodo. Genetic evidence has since confirmed that the tooth-billed pigeon – or little dodo – is one of the closest living relatives of its long-deceased namesake. Today, the little dodo is at the very precipice of extinction, but it remains nearly as cryptic and little known as it did when Jardin gave it a scientific name in 1845.

The little dodo “is the last surviving species in its genus,” Rebecca Stirnemann said. “The Fijian and Tongan species [of the little dodo] are both extinct. It is the national bird of Samoa and appears in many of the stories often in association with chiefs.”

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Government pressure on AGL to keep its Liddell power plant open past 2022 ignores the sensible, cost-effective plan to replace it. Kriti Nagrath, Senior Research Consultant, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A UK startup making water containers from seaweed is one of many businesses thinking of food-based answers to the global problem of plastic. Can they catch on?

Who hasn’t occasionally considered whether you could just chomp on your water bottle once you have finished drinking from it? That is a reality with Ooho water pouches – from Skipping Rocks Lab, a UK-based “sustainable packaging” startup – made from seaweed for an esoteric post-beverage snack.

Of course, eating them is not really the point – the reason they received the thumbs up from French president Emmanuel Macron in December is that they offer a glimpse of a plastic-free future. With the tide turning against plastics and everyone from David Attenborough to the Queen seeking bans, these containers could help save the oceans. Ooho pouches encase a serving of water in a thin membrane made from brown algae. They were developed in London by Pierre-Yves Paslier and Rodrigo García González, who claim seaweed is safe to eat and regrows quickly, too.

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Airedale, West Yorkshire: Shy birds break cover in spring. What we call personality is really a calculation of risk and need

The little grebe jackknifes out of sight almost before I have time to register that it’s there: a flash of chestnut cheek, a plop, and a fading pattern of concentric ripples on the water. The bird books invariably characterise Tachybaptus ruficollis as “shy” or “secretive”, and it’s not hard to see why – but in reality, these things are as changeable as the seasons.

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Tesla big battery is causing a rethink about the way the grid is managed. It will already become a front-line defence in a new mechanism designed to prevent black-outs and load-shedding in the event of a major fault.

Water in Queensland’s Darling Downs was polluted so much it was unfit for stock, court hears

A failed Queensland energy company has been found guilty of causing serious environmental harm by polluting the Darling Downs with hazardous contaminants despite warnings from scientists.

Linc Energy has been on trial for weeks at Brisbane district court, where the jury was told that toxic gas leaked from its operations between 2007 and 2013.

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“Energy poverty” is not unique to developing countries. In Australia, it affects three million. But it's a problem clean energy can easily solve.

Portugal grid averages 103% renewable electricity over month of March; government suspends power supply subsidies in April.