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Genetic detective work gives a rare insight into the liaisons of early humans living 50,000 years ago.

A holidaymaker has been threatened with a fine for pinching pebbles, but there are some things we are encouraged to take from our beaches

A holidaymaker has been ordered to return a bag of pebbles to the Cornish beach they were taken from, or pay a £1,000 fine. This is troubling. When I put on my coat this morning – not worn since a trip to the seaside – I found in the pocket one piece of quartzite, two sandstone pebbles and a battered whelk shell. (It was the coat I wore for this article.) I hadn’t realised I was a “pebble plunderer”; I thought I just liked picking up the odd stone. So is there a way to beachcomb legally and ethically?

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Plastic waste collected at the Volvo Ocean Race is recycled and used to make items such as plastic benches.

Oral vaccination campaign will use goat meat baits to pre-empt outbreaks of rabies among Ethiopian wolves

Rabies vaccines hidden inside goat meat baits have been deployed in the first campaign to protect the Ethiopian wolf, Africa’s most endangered carnivore.

There are less than 500 of the wolves in the high mountains of Ethiopia and they are very vulnerable to infectious diseases from domestic dogs. The oral vaccine approach will next be rolled out to cover all six surviving populations of the wolf.

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The lions of the Namib Desert survive against incredible odds, but can they survive trophy hunting, human-wildlife conflict and climate change?

Desert lions aren’t a distinct species or even a subspecies, but they are different. Drop a plains lion into the Namib Desert — where it may rain only 5 millimeters a year — and watch it perish.

According to Izak Smit, who runs the local NGO, Desert Lions Human Relations Aid (DeLHRA), the desert lions of Namibia are able to go long periods of time without water, getting most of their moisture from the blood of their kills. They are leaner and woolier (due to frigid nights). And they behave distinctly than other lions: prides are smaller, they have bigger home ranges and travel further and there is no infanticide — a common practice among plains lions.

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A UK-assembled satellite goes into orbit later to make the first truly global maps of wind behaviour.

Government aim to end plastic pollution undermined by keen support for fracking, says Campaign to Protect Rural England

The push for a large-scale fracking operation in England will fuel the global plastic crisis and undermines the government’s claims that it is tackling the issue, according to a leading charity.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) says fracking will not only destroy large areas of the countryside, it will exacerbate the global plastic binge which is already causing widespread damage to oceans, habitats and the human food chain.

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China’s Guangdong province has issued nearly 200,000 carbon credits under its regional programme that supplies the local emissions trading scheme with offsets in the absence of a functional national system.

A nearby town is suing over fears that the land, once home to a nuclear weapons facility, still poses a threat

The nation’s newest national wildlife refuge, filled with swaying prairie grass and home to a herd of elk, is slated to open next month just outside Colorado’s largest city.

But seven Denver metro area school districts have already barred school-sanctioned field trips to the preserve. A top local health official says he would probably never hike there. And a town is suing over what the soil might contain.

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Pangolins should be considered top priority for conservation in China, say scientists studying their decline.

This position is responsible for successful implementation of an international MRV capacity building project with multiple partner and stakeholder organizations.

The UN's CDM Executive Board has registered a Korean-funded emission reduction programme in Bangladesh, a move expected to trigger a wave of fresh investments in schemes that can generate carbon credits eligible for use in the Korean emissions trading scheme.

Australians are angry about electricity prices and both the federal government and opposition are proposing to cap them. Will this approach work, and what are the risks? Guy Dundas, Energy Fellow, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

With New South Wales suffering winter bushfires and temperature records tumbling around the globe, our leaders in Canberra have picked a bad time to jettison climate policy in favour of political bickering. Sophie Lewis, ARC DECRA Fellow, UNSW Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Research Fellow, UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Between 2010 and June 2018, India’s coal-fired power station pipeline saw shelved and cancelled projects totalling a staggering 573GW.

The post India coal project cancellations snowballing appeared first on RenewEconomy.

PRESS RELEASE JA Solar announced that it has supplied 3.2MW of mono PERC modules for Aramex‘s solar plant in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This plant represents the largest single-rooftop solar project in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to date. Located in Dubai Logistics City, the rooftop project was constructed on a turnkey...

The post JA Solar supplies mono PERC modules for the largest single-rooftop solar project in MENA appeared first on RenewEconomy.

We need genuinely dispatchable power stations to complement the growing capacity of wind and solar PV. Coal and other baseload power stations cannot fill that role.

The post Is coal power “dispatchable”? appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Trump's own EPA says his climate plan will worsen health of millions of kids, cost $US50 billion

The post EPA admits Trump would sacrifice thousands of US lives to save a few coal plants appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Evergen, the provider of Australia’s only CSIRO developed intelligent energy management system, has announced that it has commenced a process to secure a new majority shareholder to drive the continued success and expansion of the business in the rapidly evolving energy sector.

The post Evergen announces process to secure a new majority shareholder appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Two small wind farms in Victoria have had the highest capacity factors in the country, and more than 60% in the last two months.

The post Australia’s best performing wind farms in 2018 appeared first on RenewEconomy.