Around The Web

Clean air signposts and online walking maps to sidestep diesel fumes would benefit public health, finds study

Taking a side street route when walking through a city cuts a person’s air pollution exposure by half, according to a new study.

Signposting these clean air routes and providing online maps would keep people away from heavily polluted main streets and would benefit their health, the researchers said. In fact the UK group behind the research have developed a new interactive map of London that allows people to put in any route and be shown a low-pollution walking option.

Continue reading...

People with batteries and behind the meter devices can help the market meet demand. But are they well served by the Finkel Review?

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire There is in them a curious combination of industry and decadence, fun and devotion

There’s something Elizabethan about the ashy mining bees. The females are 10mm long, black with a bluish reflection, a ruff of grey hair, a further grey ring around the thorax and a furry white facial mask. The males are smaller, squatter and less strikingly marked.

Andrena cineraria is one of 67 species in Britain and Ireland belonging to the mining bee genus. They are hairy little sprites with pollen baskets on their back legs, short tongues and pointed antennae, and the most effective of pollinators. They excavate nests underground in all kinds of soils.

Continue reading...

Standards Australia guidelines may ban installations of battery storage in homes or garages, despite industry backlash against draft proposals.

Given Tesla is saying almost all of its charging stations will go off-grid, is it time to revisit out assumptions about the energy market?

The energy crisis solution must provide complementary emphasis on driving down consumption, not just on providing more generation.

Eco Energy World says approval of three new solar projects, including 280MW solar farm in Bouldercombe, bring “ready to build” portfolio to total of 570MW.

Global wind giant notes “new confidence” in Victoria market, after announcing deal to deliver 116 turbines for RES Australia’s Murra Warra wind farm.

The modelling prepared by private consultancy for Finkel Review deliberately ignores certain technologies that can provide grid security and replace coal fired generation at a much cheaper cost than gas. It also uses inflated costs for wind and solar.

With current market prices 2–4 times the costs of generation, our remaining coal fired power stations are making out like bandits.

The Global Solar Council has selected Jodie Roussell to be the Council’s new Chief Executive Officer.

The 2017 Global Cleantech Innovation Index (GCII) shows the Nordic region has the strongest cleantech start-up creation leadership for the first time.

Sungrow has installed PV and energy storage system for five islands in the Maldives where people heavily relied on diesel for power and were plagued by poor power quality and high power cost.

Paying farmers to produce environmental goods like healthy soils and clean rivers. It's not a new idea, but there's renewed interest in countries like Britain as it heads towards Brexit and also in Australia.

The Minister for the Environment and Energy — Josh Frydenburg — says the Clean Energy Target will need bipartisan support and legislation.

On a Thursday morning in June 1817, the prolific inventor Karl Drais took his Laufmaschine (running machine) for a 13km spin along the banks of the Rhine.

The voyage on the wooden bike, not dissimilar to a modern toddler’s balance bike, lasted just under an hour. The early bicycle sparked an immediate craze, and later versions became a symbol of freedom for workers and women.

Two hundred years after their invention, bicycles are widely recognised as an effective tool to combat physical and mental health problems, reduce congestion on urban roads and improve the quality of the environment.

However, cycling participation across Australia is stagnating. This is mainly because of concerns about safety. A report released last week by the Royal Automobile Association of South Australia found that in the vast majority of crashes the cyclist was not at fault.

To keep our cyclists safe, it may be time to adopt the approach of many European nations by introducing legislation that, in civil cases, presumes that car drivers caused a collision unless there is evidence to the contrary.

Shifting the burden of proof to drivers – who must prove they didn’t cause a crash – has been highly successful in other nations, along with other measures, in keeping cyclists safer and reducing accidents.

Karl Von Drais and his Laufmaschine. © TECHNOSEUM Cars generally cause collisions

Despite a significant reduction in road deaths in Australia over the past few decades, recent data point to a steady increase in serious injuries among vulnerable road users, including cyclists.

Australia needs serious action if we want to reverse this trend. Last week’s report from the RAA confirms other research in this area, such as a 2013 University of Adelaide study that examined police crash records and found drivers caused four in every five crashes between cars and bicycles.

These results are similar to a Monash University study in which researchers examined camera footage of similar incidents. They found that drivers were responsible for the actions preceding the incident in 87% of cases.

The previous studies show that most of these crashes occur at intersections, and generally involve a cyclist travelling in a straight line on a single carriageway at the time of the collision with the motor vehicle.

The presumption of liability

Previous road safety lessons, like the successful seatbelt campaign, tell us education and infrastructure only work in combination with strong regulations. However, legislation in the area of cycling safety is inadequate and puts an unfair burden on cyclists.

Under current laws, if a car collides with a bicycle or a pedestrian on Australian roads, they must make a case against the motorist to claim on the motorist’s insurance. If the insurance company contests the claim, the injured cyclist or pedestrian has to take the case to a civil court.

Surely the burden of proof should shift onto the more powerful road user, especially given that the research suggests they are more likely to be the one at fault.

To do so, we need a presumed liability law that protects vulnerable road users. Similar laws have been introduced in Canada and in many European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and France. Under these laws, sometimes also referred to as “reverse onus” or “strict liability” laws, drivers must prove that a collision with a cyclist or a pedestrian was not their fault.

These laws affect civil cases only and do not remove the presumption of innocence. In criminal law, drivers in collisions with vulnerable road users remain innocent until proven guilty. It’s also not about always blaming motorists; for example, if a cyclist ran a red light and caused a collision, they would obviously be at fault and would not receive compensation.

An Australian version of these laws would mean that cyclists were more likely to be fairly compensated in the event of a crash. More importantly, such laws would encourage motorists to take extra care when driving alongside vulnerable road users. In many European nations presumed liability, which was originally introduced to reduce traffic crashes, is widely believed to be a key component of encouraging safer cycling.

A presumed liability law would encourage the full range of health, environmental and social benefits of cycling, and keep the spirit of Drais’s original Laufmaschine alive.

However, the law alone is not sufficient. Better cycling infrastructure, reduced speed limits in residential areas, and improved education for drivers and cyclists are all needed to keep our roads safe for everyone.

Soufiane Boufous is a member of the Australasian College of Road Safety Executive Committee, NSW Chapter.

The 25 endangered black-tailed godwits were hand-reared to ensure their survival.

UK leads trend away from coal, with use down 52.5%, while China continues to consume less of the dirtiest fossil fuel

Global demand for coal has fallen for the second consecutive year, according to a BP study, helped by the US and China burning less of the dirtiest fossil fuel.

The UK was described as the “most extreme example” of the trend away from coal, which has resulted in use of the fuel returning to levels not seen since the start of the industrial revolution.

Continue reading...

Competition for nesting sites could explain why some birds and bumblebees are declining faster than others.

Plans to install a solar, wind and battery microgrid on Lord Howe Island have hit a snag, after an objection to the wind turbines from the federal energy minister.