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Crocodile turns up for a swim on Queensland beach near Cairns – video
Luke Downes captured this footage of ‘Snapper Jr’ casually floating towards swimmers at Kewarra beach near Cairns. While filming, Downes offered the crocodile a friendly greeting, but Snapper Jr didn’t stick around for long. Never fear, a wildlife expert has claimed that there are worse things in the water to worry about in that part of the world, like box jellyfish, which are capable of killing a person in under five minutes
Continue reading...AGL pulls out of coal seam gas across Australia, leaving farmers ‘ecstatic’
Energy company cites low oil prices for decision to cease exploration and wind down or sell its gas fields, with CSG opponents calling the move a well-earned victory
AGL is pulling out of coal seam gas in Australia, ceasing its exploration and winding down or selling its operational gas fields.
Plummeting oil and gas prices were cited by AGL as one of the main reasons for the decision in its announcement to the ASX on Thursday morning, as well as lower than expected production volumes from one of its fields in NSW.
Continue reading...Video shows only known wild jaguar in US at home in Arizona mountains
The big cat, known as ‘El Jefe’, has been living in 25 miles south of downtown Tucson – half a century after the last verified US jaguar was killed by a hunter
The only known wild jaguar in the United States is seen roaming around a creek and other parts of a mountain range just south of Tucson, Arizona in the first publicly released video of the big cat.
Related: Eastern Cougar extinct, no longer needs protection, says US conservation agency
Continue reading...Brexit would return Britain to being 'dirty man of Europe'
Leading group of environmentalists warns that leaving the European Union would mean a return to filthy beaches, foul air and weak conservation laws
Britain risks becoming the “dirty man of Europe” again with filthy beaches, foul air and weak conservation laws if it leaves the European Union, a group of leading environmentalists warned on Wednesday.
The steering committee of the new E4E (Environmentalists for Europe) group includes former ministers, a former EU commissioner and a former head of the Environment Agency. It will work with green groups to persuade people that leaving the EU could set back the UK’s nature protection and prevention of pollution many years. The UK’s referendum on EU membership may come as soon as June.
Continue reading...Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
Spread says it will open the fully automated farm with robots handling almost every step of the process
A Japanese company is to open the world’s first “robot farm”, as agriculture joins other sectors of the economy in attempting to fill labour shortages created by the country’s rapidly ageing population.
Spread, a vegetable producer, said industrial robots would carry out all but one of the tasks needed to grow the tens of thousands of lettuces it produces each day at its vast indoor farm in Kameoka, Kyoto prefecture, starting from mid-2017.
Continue reading...World Wetlands Day – Banrock Station wetland to benefit from a well earned drink
Reef 2050 Policy Guideline for Decision Makers - Open for public consultation
Lions rediscovered in Ethiopian national park
Local reports were confirmed when a population of previously unknown lions was caught on camera trap in the remote Alatash national park
Conservationists have announced the “amazing discovery” of a previously unknown lion population in a remote north-western region of Ethiopia, confirming local reports with camera trap photographs for the first time.
Lions were spotted in the Alatash national park on Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, lion conservation group Born Free said.
“The confirmation that lions persist in this area is exciting news,” Born Free Foundation said in a statement. “With lion numbers in steep decline across most of the African continent, the discovery of previously unconfirmed populations is hugely important.” Hans Bauer, a lion conservationist from Oxford University who led the tracking expedition in Ethiopia, said there could be up to 200 lions in the area. “Considering the relative ease with which lion signs were observed, it is likely that they are resident throughout Alatash and Dinder [in Sudan],” he said. “On a total surface area of about 10,000 square kilometres, this would mean a population of 100-200 lions for the entire ecosystem, of which 27-54 would be in Alatash,” he said.
2015-16 Solar Towns Programme (Round 2) successful applicants announced
2015-16 Solar Towns Programme (Round 2) successful applicants announced
Wetlands Australia: National Wetlands Update February 2016
Shark eats shark in South Korean aquarium – video
A shark surprises visitors to a South Korean aquarium on Thursday by eating another smaller shark. The footage shows a large sand tiger shark slowly swallowing a smaller banded hound shark over the course of a day, leaving only the tip of the tail visible on Friday
Continue reading...UK families blow twice as much money on food waste as they think, research shows
YouGov study for Sainsbury’s reveals high cost of Britain’s food waste, with the average family of four throwing away the equivalent of 11 meals – or nearly £60 – a month
British families squander twice as much money on food waste each month as they think they do, according to YouGov research commissioned by Sainsbury’s.
Continue reading...Protecting National Historic Sites 2015-16 now open
Bed bugs have developed a resistance to the most widely used insecticide
If neonicotinoids no longer work against the elusive and resilient creatures, bed bugs will continue to thrive despite exterminators’ efforts
Bed bugs have developed a resistance to neonicotinoids, a group of the most widely used insecticides, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
Products developed over the past few years to control bed bugs combine neonicotinoids, or neonics, with pyrethroids, another class of insecticide.
Continue reading...Australian coalmines are one of riskiest investments in the world – report
Oxford University research also finds Australian, Chinese and US coal-fired power stations are the most vulnerable to environmental dangers
Australian thermal coalmines are some of the riskiest in the world for investors because of their exposure to environmental dangers, according to a report from Oxford University.
The report – which was supported by Norges Bank Investment Management, managers of Norway’s government pension fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund – also found that Australian, Chinese and US coal-fired power stations were the most vulnerable to environmental risks.
Continue reading...Quiz: how well do you know your UK garden birds?
Every year, the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch asks members of the British public to spend an hour during the last weekend of January counting birds in parks and gardens to get a national snapshot of numbers. Ahead of this weekend’s event - which has grown to become the world’s largest garden wildlife survey - can you identify these common garden bird species?
Continue reading...Sea level rise from ocean warming underestimated, scientists say
Thermal expansion of the oceans as they warm is likely to be twice as large as previously thought, according to German researchers
The amount of sea level rise that comes from the oceans warming and expanding has been underestimated, and could be about twice as much as previously calculated, German researchers have said.
The findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal, suggest that increasingly severe storm surges could be anticipated as a result.
Continue reading...Electric cars to use bus lanes in UK cities
Department for Transport gives £40m fund to eight towns and cities as part of a drive to boost the uptake of cleaner cars
UK cities are to allow electric car drivers to beat congestion by using bus lanes, as part of a government drive to encourage uptake of the cleaner vehicles.
Milton Keynes and Derby will copy similar measures in Norway and allow the cars to drive in miles of bus lanes, while owners in Hackney will be able to plug in at street lights. York drivers will be able to recharge their batteries at a solar-powered park-and-ride and electric car owners in Bristol and Milton Keynes will be allowed to park for free.
Continue reading...Three dead whales wash up on Skegness beach – video
Four sperm whales die after getting stranded in shallow British waters over the weekend. Three of the whales are believed to have died in sea before washing up on Saturday on a beach in Skegness, on the Lincolnshire coast, according to British officials
• Three dead sperm whales wash up on Skegness beach
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