Around The Web

Ferns came along more than 200 million years before the dinosaurs walked the Earth. They were food for plant-eating dinosaurs and they're really great survivors. Heather, age 8, wants to know more. Gregory Moore, Doctor of Botany, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Google Earth reveals a property on which hundreds of hectares of previously untouched forest have been cleared

The tree-clearing explosion occurring in Queensland, usually reported in seemingly impossibly large numbers of hectares or square kilometres, is now being documented using publicly available satellite and aerial photography, revealing the graphic disfigurement of the remaining untouched bushland there.

Related: For the love of Queensland, this land clearing has got to stop | Lyndon Schneiders

Continue reading...

Figures show more than 2.5m cups were purchased in the past five years despite pledges by the environment secretary to tackle growing plastic waste

More than 2.5m disposable cups have been purchased by the UK’s environment department for use in its restaurants and cafes over the past five years – equivalent to nearly 1,400 a day.

The Liberal Democrats’ environment spokesman, Tim Farron, said the revelation, obtained through a freedom of information request, showed Michael Gove “needs to get his own house in order” in light of his public pledges to tackle the growing scourge of plastic pollution.

Continue reading...

Thousands more cases - including violent and sexual crimes - could be affected by "manipulated" tests.

The weather service says the levels of a radioactive isotope were nearly 1,000 times normal levels.

Poland is given two weeks to end its destruction of the Unesco-protected forest in a landmark ruling by the European court of justice

Poland has been given two weeks to stop illegal deforestation in the Unesco-protected Białowieża forest or face fines of at least €100,000 a day.

In a precedent-setting ruling that will echo across the EU, the European court of justice ordered Poland to show it was acting lawfully in the ancient woodland, or face a €36.5m (£32m) annual penalty.

Continue reading...

Europe's top court says Poland must prove it has stopped logging in Bialowieza forest or face fines.

Humpback dolphins in Western Australia have been observed gifting sea sponges to potential mates in a courtship behaviour that researchers say is very rare.  'It highlights that there's another species out there that's quite socially complex, more than we previously recognised,' says Dr Simon Allen, lead researcher from the University of Western Australia. 'They are thinking animals'

Continue reading...

Holme, Norfolk Myths and misconceptions surround this diminutive bird, which can hide in plain sight despite its dazzling plumage

It’s funny how kingfishers, the boldest-coloured birds in Britain, have inspired so much confusion. The commonest example concerns their size. Many people seeing one for the first time are flabbergasted at its smallness.

A recent encounter reminded me just how sparrow-like they are. For 20 minutes, I’d sat before a pool scanning the middle distance for harriers and winter geese, before noticing a kingfisher had been perched there all the time. It was only when it made its silvery piping notes that I fixed its location on a reed mace head.

Continue reading...

If Australian tax payers are made to cough up for a new coal plant in north Queensland, locals will also be coughing up – literally.

New report says LNP and One Nation support for uneconomic coal fired power station would force prices up in Queensland, and add to system security risks.

With the Tesla truck, Elon Musk has torn down the final frontiers of the campaign against the clean energy transition: cost. And it matters little whether Tesla itself can pull it off – it has already turned two trillion-dollar industries upside down.

BNEF report names Australia among 8 countries to lead global energy storage boom, with market forecast to double six times over between now and 2030.

ACCIONA has appointed Brett Wickham as the new Managing Director of its Australian energy business.

Spain is the latest example of governments intervening in power markets to prop up gas, coal and nuclear power, including capacity and “grid reliability” payments.

Conservatives says new report on battery storage is just "eco-evangelism". This is what chief scientist Alan Finkel said in response.

As part of a $48 million project, Ethtec aims to construct a $30 million purpose built pilot-scale facility based in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

Electric lorries | Mickey Rooney as Mr Yunioshi | Uber benchmark | Pre-latte days | Mispronouncing Italian | Theresa May’s church visits

Despite what Elon Musk says (Keep on trucking: a swipe at rail as Tesla unveils electric lorry, 18 November), there is still a crucial role for rail freight in transporting long-distance consumer and bulk traffic in a safer low-carbon way that reduces road congestion and road damage. Also, 136 lorry platoons already exist and are called freight trains. So, during road safety week (20-26 November) we should remember that last year heavy goods vehicles were almost seven times more likely than cars to be involved in fatal crashes on local roads.
Philippa Edmunds
Freight on rail manager, Campaign for Better Transport

• One of my best-loved films, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, is now unwatchable by me for the stereotypical portrayal of Mr Yunioshi by Mickey Rooney (I like Apu from the Simpsons. But I can see the harm in stereotypes, 18 November). My father’s critical perspective was influenced by the heroine being a call girl, but then he’d been through a war against, among others, the Japanese.
Jenny Powell
Storrington, Sussex

Continue reading...

A recent report claims that Australia's energy can reliably come from 50% renewable sources by 2030. But arguing over renewable levels distracts from a paucity of policy. David Blowers, Energy Fellow, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The spectacular albatrosses featured in the BBC's Blue Planet series have seen a big slump in numbers.