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Santa Teresa crosses go around the world and fishing for crays
Energy Renaissance appoints industry powerhouse in preparation for its 1GWh factory
Solar heads to 1c/kWh before 2020 after Mexico sets record low
Replacing Liddell coal plant with clean energy $1.3bn cheaper – analysis
A clean energy package will have a zero pollution outcome compared with 40m tonnes under Coalition’s plan to extend the NSW plant, UTS modelling reveals
• Renewables could reliably contribute 50% to power grid, Finkel report finds
Replacing the Liddell coal power station with clean energy technologies would slash pollution and be at least $1.3bn cheaper than the Turnbull government’s plan to extend the life of the New South Wales plant by five years, a new analysis has found.
A second report released on Monday also found Australia has the potential to lead the world in developing large and home-scale energy storage systems if public uncertainty can be overcome.
Continue reading...How the International Energy Agency is steering world to climate disaster
COAG: Doctors call on states to reject the NEG
Country diary 1917: drizzle and the dripping, decaying wood
20 November 1917 The few leaves which still remain upon the branches hang like soiled and tattered rags
The wonderful colouring of a few weeks ago has vanished, and the few leaves which still remain upon the branches hang like soiled and tattered rags; the litter below the trees is full of moisture, blackening with decay. For once the wood is positively untidy. Windfall boughs and twigs, green and red with fungoid growths, lie everywhere, the larger branches holding the withered leaves; the healthy, living tree is the first to shed its foliage. A red campion here and there and a few thistles are the only visible flowers; the latter are bravely open, though their stalks, wilting slightly, are without a single living leaf. The osiers stand a foot deep in water, for the ditches have overflowed, converting the withy bed into a lake from which the willows rise, many islands.
Related: Why we should celebrate winter woodland – not just the Christmas tree
Continue reading...Destructive Arundel bypass route would be a national scandal
Thank you to Patrick Barkham for highlighting the destructive insanity of the Arundel bypass scheme (The road to rural oblivion, 14 November). He mentions ancient woodland and says it needs legal protection. Actually ancient woodland (ie, wooded since 1600) already has legal protection, and “compensation planting” is required – the ratio is decided by English Nature, but may be a multiple of seven or even up to 30 times the area taken.
The legislation to protect ancient woodland may have the perverse effect of causing the most damaging option to be chosen. Highways England has run a public consultation, which blatantly favours the route through Binsted woods, 100 hectares of superb quality semi-natural broadleaved woodland. The woods have been here since the Domesday Book – huge, mysterious, unmanaged, full of fallen trees that have regrown from horizontal, and an incredibly rich hotspot for rare wildlife. But some parts have had a cleared period in the last 400 years, so are not designated as ancient woodland.
Continue reading...Delhi suffers second smog crisis in 12 months, as wake-up calls go unheeded
UK trade minister lobbied Brazil on behalf of oil giants
A telegram obtained by Greenpeace shows that Greg Hands met a Brazilian minister to discuss relaxation of tax and environmental regulation
Britain successfully lobbied Brazil on behalf of BP and Shell to address the oil giants’ concerns over Brazilian taxation, environmental regulation and rules on using local firms, government documents reveal.
The UK’s trade minister travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo in March for a visit with a “heavy focus” on hydrocarbons, to help British energy, mining and water companies win business in Brazil.
Continue reading...New Finkel report finds no need to panic about energy storage
The eco guide to the cod bounceback
It was great news for fish and chips fans when North Sea cod was certified sustainable. Steady on though, there are still things to worry about at sea
Here’s a food truth: most Britons are happy to say “cod and chips, please” without even thinking about the sustainability impact of our favourite Friday night supper. Our love of white flaky fish has been a nightmare for fish campaigners. North Sea cod stocks plummeted from 270,000 tonnes in the 1970s to 44,000 tonnes in the early 2000s.
North Sea cod stocks plummeted from 270,000 tonnes in the 1970s to 44,000 tonnes in the early 2000s
Continue reading...Bosnia's silent killer: The coal industry
Floods: How to stay safe when disaster strikes
Life saver numbers drop over fear of crocodiles
Weather watchers: life on remote Willis Island
The world's biggest lithium battery farm
Country diary: pines that went to Passchendaele
Milkham Inclosure, New Forest In the wartime effort of 1917 timber from this woodland fell to axes and became the battlefield planks trodden perhaps by the forest dwellers themselves
Today we wander through Milkham’s pines in an atmosphere of autumnal tranquillity. During the first world war the scene would have been very different. The ring of axes would have cut through the air as still more trees needed for the war effort were taken down. A few mother trees were spared to provide seedlings for regeneration.
One hundred years ago last week, after appalling cost, the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele, ended. Pictures taken at the time show Australian gunners walking on duckboards across seas of mud, heading for the frontline through stick-like trees. They could have been treading on planks cut from pines that once grew in Milkham. A sombre thought.
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