Around The Web

How were the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park created, and what have we learned about them since?

South Korean carbon allowances weakened slightly on Monday as the government failed to release outright results from Friday’s auction, leaving traders uncertain how to respond.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has cancelled two contracts for delivery of a total 1.67 million carbon credits to its Emissions Reduction Fund.

The delay of China’s national emissions trading scheme is threatening to choke the nation’s fledgling carbon market industry as a majority of companies have put a freeze on new hires and some staffers have been forced to take a pay cut to keep their jobs, according to a new survey.

The announcement comes ahead of legislation banning the use of lightweight plastic bags in Western Australia and Queensland.

Despite the PM’s declaration, it is unclear how current climate policy will ensure Australia reaches its Paris commitment

Malcolm Turnbull, on a tour of drought-stricken areas in New South Wales and Queensland, has declared there is “no doubt that our climate is getting warmer”.

Flanked by Nationals on Monday in Trangie, Turnbull acknowledged climate change remained a live political debate but he said: “I don’t know many people in rural New South Wales that I talk to that don’t think the climate is getting drier and rainfall is becoming more volatile.”

Continue reading...

4 June 1918 Most of these foliage-devourers are the larvae of geometer moths of various kinds, sometimes called loopers

Caterpillars are doing their best to eat up the woods. On some of the sycamores, elms, and other trees the leaves are already reduced to lacework; on others, oaks in particular, many of the leaves have vanished. Most of these foliage-devourers are the larvae of geometer moths of various kinds; they are sometimes called loopers, on account of their habit of humping up their backs and straightening themselves out for the next reach, as they walk, or they are known as stick caterpillars when, at rest, they apparently pretend to be lifeless twigs. Others are smaller moths, leaf-rollers and miners, and others, again, particularly abundant on the hawthorns but by no means confining their attention to this plant, are the showy little hairy “palmer worms,” the caterpillars of the gold-tailed moth, whose irritating hairs give tender skins a rash.

Related: Health warning as toxic hairy caterpillars take over woodlands

Continue reading...

Clean, smart and safe, the I-PACE delivers sustainable sports car performance, next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) technology and five-seat SUV practicality to place Jaguar at the forefront of the EV revolution.

Federal opposition proposes renewables zone in north-west Tasmania, as Victorian Labor extends coal mining licences for Latrobe Valley's major brown coal generators.

Victoria Inquiry recommends number of ways state government could boost the uptake of EVs – but will this translate into policy?

Great Ridge, Peak District: Momentum builds like a wave, and in a thrilling, spine-shivering moment, a glittering ribbon sparkles into being along the ridge

I reach the top of Mam Tor, out of breath, as the sun is dropping behind the bulk of Kinder Scout and dying in a great flare of scattered orange.

It is quarter past nine on a Tuesday night, but the top of the peak is a throng of activity; dozens of people are milling around the summit and marvelling at the sunset, unfazed by a biting wind. I squint into the east, and can faintly make out the dots of hundreds more people trailing into the distance.

Continue reading...

REN21 report says record 98GW of solar capacity added globally in 2018, 52GW of wind, and 178GW total of all renewables. But other sectors – including transport, heating, and cooling – coasting along "as if we had all the time in the world."

Tesla owners club installs Round Australia Electric Highway, providing all EV drivers with usable charging route – while governments and industry catch up.

Fascinating insight into electricity bills for business, and why they should, or shouldn't buy a battery. Meanwhile, futures price fell across the board.

While the Clean Energy Regulator believes the 2020 LGC target is met, the market continues to offer mixed signals. Meanwhile, more activity in new financial products continues.

BBC News went to the IAEA’s labs at Seibersdorf near Vienna to find out how they inspect the world's nuclear sites.

Speaking at a climate change conference in London, author Margaret Atwood supported a ban on single use plastic.

New Zealand has set itself a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and a recent report by the Productivity Commission lays out how it could hit that target. Robert McLachlan, Professor in Applied Mathematics, Massey University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Warning about conflicts, wars and mass migration is the wrong way to approach things

The Australian Senate’s declaration last month that climate change is a “current and existential national security risk” was clearly intended to inject much-needed urgency into the country’s climate policy stalemate. Bringing together the unusual bedfellows of military generals and environmentalists to warn about the dangers of climate change, it has the possibility to break though Australia’s culture wars on the issue. However, by framing climate change as a security matter, it also has significant consequences in shaping how we respond to a warming planet. As the climate crisis unfolds, is the military the institution we want to turn to for solutions?

Continue reading...

Giles Oakley writes: On the one occasion I met the Tory MP Sir Richard Body he made a great impression. In 1987 I was interviewing him for a BBC2 Open Space documentary entitled Aggro Chemicals presented by self-taught scientist and campaigning organic dairy farmer Mark Purdey.

Sir Richard supported Mark in his principled refusal to comply with a Ministry of Agriculture order to apply an organic phosphate-based compound on his cattle to prevent a hypothetical infestation of warble fly. Mark, preferring his own organic treatment, took the matter all the way to the high court, and won.

Continue reading...