Feed aggregator

Researchers say forecasting tool will stop coastal plants from being shut down by swarms blocking cooling water intakes

Invasions of jellyfish have proved adept at shutting down power plants in recent years. But an early warning tool is now in development to alert power stations to incoming swarms which block the cooling water intakes of coastal plants.

EDF’s Torness nuclear power plant in Scotland was closed for a week in 2011 after a mass of moon jellyfish invaded and the company is now working with researchers from the University of Bristol to tackle the problem.

Continue reading...

As Brexit puts the future of EU laws protecting the environment in doubt, Greenpeace sent photographer Vanessa Miles to Blackpool to recreate a series of images she took in 1990 when just one in five UK beaches met bathing guidelines

Continue reading...

Ogwen valley, which allows easy defence against grey squirrels, is selected for new colony

Conservationists have turned to military strategy to ensure a new wild colony of red squirrels is protected from its bushy-tailed grey adversary in Wales.

A site at Ogwen valley, five miles from Bangor, has been selected because it is ringed by mountains and cut off from grey squirrels.

Continue reading...

Banning the cooling gases currently used in refrigeration and air conditioning could save half a degree of global warming if a deal can be agreed in Rwanda.

The end-of-season classic is not only among the oldest races, but also one of the toughest. Peter Kimpton delves into its course, kit and culture

Snaking down forested hairpin bends towards the finish, just 61 riders remain from 201, most beaten down by a gruelling 240km and multiple climbs across some of Italy’s most challenging but beautiful terrain. Dubbed “la classica delle foglie morte” (the race of the falling/dying leaves), the Giro Di Lombardia recently completed its 110th edition.

This year it traversed the glimmering waters of Lake Como before climbing up through cobbles into the ancient walled section of Citta Alta in Bergamo, where buildings glow orange, brown, red and in the autumn light. A sprint finish in the town’s main square saw Italy’s Diego Rosa tearfully beaten to the line by the ever-smiling Colombian Esteban Chaves, the first non-European ever to triumph here.

Continue reading...

Land Speed Record holder Andy Green reflects on the partnership the Bloodhound supersonic car project has forged with Chinese auto group Geely.

The New South Wales government is proposing controversial shark nets on the state's north coast.

Four scientists are awarded the 2016 World Food Prize for crop work that delivers health benefits in developing nations.

China leads EU and US in market size, with Nissan Leaf taking the top spot for best-selling model followed by Tesla’s Model S and two Chinese-made models

The number of plug-in electric cars on the world’s roads is set to pass the landmark of two million vehicles by the end of 2016, with industry observers saying the electric car revolution is finally underway.

A surging market in China is leading the way and Chinese-made models have pushed into the top five best-selling models. Europe is the second biggest market, followed by the US, but their traditional car manufacturers face a stern challenge from China and from Tesla, whose much-anticipated Model 3 is expected to go into production in 2017.

Continue reading...

Report from the Committee on Climate Change says a government strategy to deploy new, radical technologies at scale by 2050 must begin now

The UK government needs to kickstart technologies to suck carbon dioxide from the air if it is to play its part in meeting the goals of the Paris climate change agreement, according to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the government’s official advisers.

The global climate deal, which the prime minister, Theresa May, says the UK will ratify by the end of 2016, pledges net zero emissions by the second half of the century, in order to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. Given that some emissions, such as those from aviation and agriculture, will be very difficult to reduce to zero, that means removing some carbon from the atmosphere.

Continue reading...

Environmentalists furious that 2020 moratorium on 400,000ha of Tarkine forests could be reversed to help Forestry Australia ‘stand on its own feet’

Old growth forests in the Tarkine could be logged by private companies under plans being considered by the Tasmanian government to reverse a moratorium on harvesting 400,000ha of high conservation value forests.

The forests were part of 500,000ha protected under the forest peace deal signed by the former Labor government in 2013, which would have seen them eventually gazetted into national parks.

Continue reading...

Ouse Fen, Cambridgeshire There is a looseness, a jauntiness in an off-duty fox, an actor out of costume, performance over. But why was this one stopping so often?

Halfway through the morning, with fog rising from the fen, a fox was caught out at the end of its night shift. It had opted to cross an open field of winter wheat, whose short, narrow blades offered no cover at all. Plenty saw the fox coming. A pair of Egyptian geese that had been grazing at the fringe made a precautionary lift off. A clamour of crows well and truly outed the predator by swirling in an umbrella of flaps and raucous jeers.

The fox paused to sit out the overhead commotion, then traipsed a little further before squatting down to swivel its eyes, ears and snout, and stare intently in the direction of my glinting binocular lenses. It was not the only animal that had been found out.

Continue reading...

Long-running YouGov poll shows support for shale gas extraction at 37.3% – just as industry gears up to begin drilling

The British public’s support for fracking has fallen sharply in the last year and is now at the lowest level ever, according to a long-running poll published as the industry gears up to begin drilling.

New polling by YouGov for the University of Nottingham, which has been tracking attitudes towards shale gas extraction for more than four years, shows support for fracking in the UK is now at 37.3%, down from 46.5% a year ago and 58% in the summer of 2013.

Continue reading...

Putting aside its support for coal mining, the Queensland government has done a huge service to clean energy with its RET draft report, which smashes so many renewables myths it's hard to know where to start.

IPART calls on solar industry, power retailers for advice on tariffs, metering, battery storage and other products to help manage the transition as 146,000 NSW homes come off premium FiT.

Infigen Energy's Miles George will retire as managing director at end 2016, but plans to continue in renewables sector, and in role advocating for it.

Greens win bid for Senate Committee to investigate potential for a battery storage “boom” in Australia, to boost renewables and the resilience of the grid.

Solar will rival coal as the biggest source of electricity supply by 2030 under the scenarios outlined by the state's expert panel on the 50% renewable target.

US solar developer wants to build world's biggest solar development, a 2,000MW, $US5 billion project featuring its solar tower and molten salt storage technology.

Hammerheads are the species most caught in NSW's shark nets. Shark image from www.shutterstock.com

New South Wales Premier Mike Baird has this week announced a plan for a six-month trial of shark nets off the beaches of northern NSW. This would extend the state’s shark net program from the 51 beaches currently netted between Wollongong and Newcastle.

The announcement was triggered by Wednesday’s shark accident, in which a surfer received minor injuries from a shark bite at Sharpes Beach, Ballina.

The decision marks a turn-around in Premier Baird’s position on sharks. For over a year he has acknowledged the importance of addressing the issue, and has adopted a measured, long-term, non-lethal approach to managing shark hazards. Specifically, the NSW government has, in the last year, allocated funding and resources to non-lethal strategies including surveillance, research and education.

Killing sharks has been highly controversial in Australia in recent years, and in NSW shark nets have been a focus of ongoing, highly polarising debate.

Three common misunderstandings about shark nets

The decision to introduce shark nets in the state’s north invites us to revisit some common misunderstandings about this strategy.

First, there is wide misunderstanding about what shark nets are and what they do. The nets used in the NSW Shark Meshing (Bather Protection) Program do not create an enclosed area within which beach goers are protected from sharks.

They are fishing nets, which function by catching and killing sharks in the area. Nets are 150 m long, 6 m deep, and are suspended in water 10-12 m deep, within 500 m of the shore.

Bondi Beach’s shark net in 2009. NSW Department of Primary Industries, 2009

Second, whether shark nets work is still up for debate. Shark nets have been used in NSW since 1937. Since then, the number of netted beaches, methods for deploying nets, and data collection and record-keeping methods have changed, and data sets are incomplete.

Our use of the beach and ocean has also changed dramatically. There are more people in the water, in new areas, and we’re using the ocean for different activities. At the same time, our observation of sharks and emergency response have improved dramatically.

The suggestion that nets prevent shark accidents is an oversimplification of a complex story, a misrepresentation of both technology and data, and it misinforms the public.

And finally, shark nets cannot be a long-term solution. They are out-dated technology based on outdated thinking, developed 80 years ago.

They go directly against our international responsibility to protect threatened species (under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and our own Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act), and our national priorities for protecting marine environments and species, including several shark species.

We know that shark nets in NSW kill on average at least 275 animals per year (measured between 1950 and 2008), and that the majority of animals killed pose no threat to people. We can do better than this.

Learning from the (very) recent past

Right now we have an opportunity in NSW to learn from recent experiences in Western Australia. In 2012, the WA government, under Premier Colin Barnett, introduced hooked “drumlines” to kill sharks in an attempt to reduce the risk of shark bites. Like this week’s announcement by Premier Baird, that policy change was stimulated by a spike in shark accidents.

The response to the new policy was a highly-polarised debate and extraordinary public outcry, including two public protests at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach attracting 4,000 and 6,000 people, and protests in eleven other cities around the country, including 2,000 at Sydney’s Manly Beach.

The state’s Environmental Protection Authority received a record number of 12,000 submissions from scientific and other experts presenting reasons to cease the cull. The WA government heeded the EPA’s recommendation and cancelled the policy.

Our research with ocean users conducted during this period showed that perspectives are diverse (we surveyed 557 WA-based ocean-users using quantitative and qualitative research methods).

Among people who use the ocean regularly, some strongly oppose killing sharks; others are ambivalent; and a smaller number of people are in favour. People’s views and understandings are nuanced and carefully thought through.

However, within this group, the strategies for managing shark hazards that were most strongly supported were improving public education about sharks, and encouraging ocean users to understand and accept the risks associated with using the ocean. Other widely supported strategies included developing shark deterrents and increasing surveillance and patrols.

The most strongly opposed approaches were those that killed sharks including culling, proactive catch-and-destroy measures, baited drumlines, and shark nets.

In recent years we have been making good progress in Australia on public discussion and investment in more effective and ethical approaches for reducing shark bites. This week’s move to introduce an outmoded technology to the north coast promises to further divide the community.

We should continue to invest in developing new strategies that better reflect our contemporary understanding of marine ecosystems. Perhaps we also need to consider (temporarily) altering the way we use the ocean, avoiding areas of higher-than-usual shark sightings.

Leah Gibbs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.