Feed aggregator

Garden warblers in fact prefer thick scrub, which is dying out in our tidy countryside

Some birds are very well named: such as the cuckoo, treecreeper and song thrush. Others, including Kentish plover, grey wagtail and garden warbler, are almost wilfully misleading.

Garden warblers are, unlike their cousin the blackcap, hardly ever found in gardens. They prefer thick scrub, a transitory habitat that is becoming harder and harder to find in our increasingly tidy countryside.

Continue reading...

Andrew and Jane Clifford promise to match donations in bid to stop feral cats

A $1m donation to the fight against feral cats could help to double the size of the world’s largest cat-free sanctuary or help genetically neuter cats, conservationists say.

Sydney philanthropists Andrew and Jane Clifford have pledged to match every donation made to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy up to $1m before the end of the financial year, hoping to create a $2m fund to eradicate Australia’s cat plague.

Continue reading...

Readers react to George Monbiot’s article on dropping meat and dairy, news about Sainsbury’s selling vegan ‘fake meats’ , and a report on meat being found in vegan and vegetarian meals

Alongside George Monbiot’s suggestion (Want to save the planet? Drop meat and dairy, 8 June), another way to reduce greenhouse gases is to stop keeping pets. It’s been calculated that an average dog has an ecological footprint twice as large as that of a large car.

Like meat-eating, pet ownership is nowadays encouraged by a vast industry; the pet insurance sector alone is said to generate more of Britain’s GDP than fishing does. The production of pet food, provision of veterinary services and breeding the creatures are big businesses, all with an interest in promoting the alleged benefits of owning a furry friend.

Continue reading...

With the first 500mph runs now pushed back to mid-2019, there is more time to prepare the world's first supersonic car.

EU carbon prices dropped below €15 for the first time in almost two weeks on Tuesday as a weak auction result suggested the market could struggle to absorb the wave of heightened volume ahead.

Single-Column Responsive Email Template Newsletter #1 - June 2018 Welcome to the WA SENG Division Newsletter I am pleased to announce that the planning committee for WA's SENG Division has reformed and is busily organising events and technical sessions for its members. Read on for further information about how you can get involved with the WA SENG committee, as well as information about our upcoming event on 20 June 2018. If you have any feedback regarding what you would like WA SENG to be doing more of, please let me know at info@seng.org.au Michelle North Co-chair, WA SENG Division WA SENG June 2018 Event: Implementation of EEI - Anammox process for wastewater treatment Cost: FREE to SENG and EA Members, $30 for non-members, Register here Speaker: Dr Raj Kurup PhD FIEAust CPEng NER APEC Engineer IntPE(Aus) GAICD - CEO, Environmental Engineers International Pty Ltd (EEI) Date/Time: Wednesday 20 June 2018, 5.00pm (for 5.30 pm start) Venue: Engineers Australia WA Auditorium, 712 Murray Street, West Perth Nominations for WA SENG Committee SENG is a voluntary body of professionals in the Sustainability and Environmental Engineering fields. The SENG Divisions throughout Australia provide comment on sustainability related issues, as well as deliver Engineers Australia's Environmental College’s continuous professional development by organising technical presentations, workshops and symposia. Nominations are invited for those wishing to contribute as Members of the SENG WA Committee in the year 2018/2019. To nominate for the committee, please send a brief cover note and CV to info@seng.org.au. Being a Member of the SENG Committee involves attending a Society committee meeting once a month at the WA Division office of Engineers Australia and may also involve: Fulfilling one of the positions on the committee, e.g. Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer Assisting in organising the regular technical sessions Assisting in organising other events, such as site visits, workshops or training courses Liaising with WA Division office of Engineers Australia Maintaining SENG WA’s webpages Coordinating and editing SENG WA’s e-newsletters Liaising with organisations in similar fields such as Water Panel, EWB, WMAA, EIANZ, QELA, AWA, etc. Reviewing documents or responding to requests to SENG Commenting on current issues in the Sustainability and Environmental fields. If you have any questions, please contact Michelle North at info@seng.org.au. Update on Engineers Australia's Environmental College Board WA SENG Division's co-chairs, Michelle North and Patrick Coffey are also members of the Environmental College Board of Engineers Australia. Michelle and Patrick attended the College's annual face-to-face board meeting on 29 May 2018 in Sydney. The Environmental College is working with SENG to promote awareness, advocate for positive change, and provide training and knowledge to all engineers and environmental professionals to implement sustainable solutions. At the May 2018 board meeting, the College reviewed its strategic plan and discussed the development of a training presentation to highlight the importance of sustainability and the urgency for action. SENG and the Environmental College were heavily involved in the development of Engineers Australia's Climate Change and Sustainability Polices and it is worth re-familiarising yourselves with them here. Together, we are now driving the implementation of actions that support these policies. If you can't view this email click here to view online Click here to unsubscribe from this newsletter

Australia’s Paris Agreement commitment is “grossly inadequate” and the target would have to be dramatically ramped up for the coal-reliant nation to do its fair share to keep climate change under control, a report found Tuesday.

How significant is the agreement signed by US President Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un for regional security?

Are we doomed to societal collapse? Not if we break the mould of ever-greater production and consumption

Enough concrete has been produced to cover the entire surface of the Earth in a layer two millimetres thick. Enough plastic has been manufactured to clingfilm it as well. We produce 4.8bn tonnes of our top five crops, plus 4.8 billion head of livestock, annually. There are 1.2bn motor vehicles, 2bn personal computers, and more mobile phones than the 7.5 billion people on Earth.

The result of all this production and consumption is a chronic, escalating, many-sided environmental crisis. From rapid climate change to species extinctions to microplastics in every ocean, these impacts are now so large that many scientists have concluded that we have entered a new human-dominated geological period called the Anthropocene.

Continue reading...

Committee was set up by former prime minister Tony Abbott to handle complaints about wind turbine noise

• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon

An independent scientific committee on wind turbines established by the Coalition in 2015 failed to hold one face-to-face meeting last year and failed to have its research accepted by peer-reviewed journals.

The independent scientific committee on wind turbines was created to advise on the science of potential impacts of wind turbines on people’s health.

Continue reading...

Utility owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway signs deal to build 1GW+ new large-scale solar in Nevada, with power purchase agreements starting at $US21.55/MWh – a record low in the US.

New research has suggested a fresh way to account for greenhouse gases with different lifetimes in the atmosphere. Dave Frame, Professor of Climate Change, Victoria University of Wellington Adrian Henry Macey, Senior Associate, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies; Adjunct Professor, New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute. , Victoria University of Wellington Myles Allen, Professor of Geosystem Science, Leader of ECI Climate Research Programme, University of Oxford Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Korean car maker Kai unveils latest all-electric vehicle, the Niro EV, which cold be in Australia in 2019.

China, Gupta, storage. This past week has seen landmark developments that signal the pace of the energy transition is gathering speed, with huge implications for consumers (mostly good) and incumbent utilities (mostly not so good).

Pagham Harbour, West Sussex: Among the detritus, towers of red valerian shake in the wind and sea kale plants explode in a flurry of wavy green leaves

Continue reading...

Victoria says its renewables auction on track, but there is still concern that the NEG could scorch the earth around it.

NSW coal closures, China's solar bombshell, and falling lithium shares. Just another week in energy markets.

On behalf of the Australian Government, ARENA is providing $2 million in funding to MSM Milling Pty Ltd to help switch its LPG gas fired boilers to a biomass fuelled boiler.

GreenSync is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Woodall as Chairman of the board, effective immediately.

Victoria's newest wind farm - Salt Creek - has begun exporting to the grid.