Feed aggregator

Join us as we take a drive through this week's news around regional and rural Australia.

Report warns carbon footprint of heavy emitter cement companies must be reduced sharply in order to meet Paris climate goals

Greenhouse gas emissions from cement production must be reduced sharply if the world is to meet the climate change goals set out in the Paris agreement, a new report has suggested.

Making cement and concrete, which is the most consumed product in the world after water, entails substantial emissions of carbon dioxide, from the chemical processes involved. While manufacturers have for years been seeking ways to reduce this or capture the carbon produced, and to make cement production more energy efficient, the results have failed to keep pace with the need to cut carbon emissions.

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The annual extra now compared with the early 1800s has a water volume twice that of the Dead Sea.

Illegal pigeon hunting across Samoa is risking the extinction of the country’s national bird: the little dodo or manumea. Will this little-known island pigeon suffer the same fate as its namesake?

Nearly two hundred years after the extinction of the dodo, Sir William Jardin – a Scottish naturalist and bird-aficionado – described another odd, bulky, island pigeon. From the island of Samoa, this one was distinguished by a massive, curving bill that sported tooth-like serrations on its lower mandible. Given the strangeness of the creature, Jardine set it in its own genus and dubbed it Didunculus – the little dodo. Genetic evidence has since confirmed that the tooth-billed pigeon – or little dodo – is one of the closest living relatives of its long-deceased namesake. Today, the little dodo is at the very precipice of extinction, but it remains nearly as cryptic and little known as it did when Jardin gave it a scientific name in 1845.

The little dodo “is the last surviving species in its genus,” Rebecca Stirnemann said. “The Fijian and Tongan species [of the little dodo] are both extinct. It is the national bird of Samoa and appears in many of the stories often in association with chiefs.”

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Government pressure on AGL to keep its Liddell power plant open past 2022 ignores the sensible, cost-effective plan to replace it. Kriti Nagrath, Senior Research Consultant, University of Technology Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A UK startup making water containers from seaweed is one of many businesses thinking of food-based answers to the global problem of plastic. Can they catch on?

Who hasn’t occasionally considered whether you could just chomp on your water bottle once you have finished drinking from it? That is a reality with Ooho water pouches – from Skipping Rocks Lab, a UK-based “sustainable packaging” startup – made from seaweed for an esoteric post-beverage snack.

Of course, eating them is not really the point – the reason they received the thumbs up from French president Emmanuel Macron in December is that they offer a glimpse of a plastic-free future. With the tide turning against plastics and everyone from David Attenborough to the Queen seeking bans, these containers could help save the oceans. Ooho pouches encase a serving of water in a thin membrane made from brown algae. They were developed in London by Pierre-Yves Paslier and Rodrigo García González, who claim seaweed is safe to eat and regrows quickly, too.

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Airedale, West Yorkshire: Shy birds break cover in spring. What we call personality is really a calculation of risk and need

The little grebe jackknifes out of sight almost before I have time to register that it’s there: a flash of chestnut cheek, a plop, and a fading pattern of concentric ripples on the water. The bird books invariably characterise Tachybaptus ruficollis as “shy” or “secretive”, and it’s not hard to see why – but in reality, these things are as changeable as the seasons.

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Tesla big battery is causing a rethink about the way the grid is managed. It will already become a front-line defence in a new mechanism designed to prevent black-outs and load-shedding in the event of a major fault.

Water in Queensland’s Darling Downs was polluted so much it was unfit for stock, court hears

A failed Queensland energy company has been found guilty of causing serious environmental harm by polluting the Darling Downs with hazardous contaminants despite warnings from scientists.

Linc Energy has been on trial for weeks at Brisbane district court, where the jury was told that toxic gas leaked from its operations between 2007 and 2013.

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“Energy poverty” is not unique to developing countries. In Australia, it affects three million. But it's a problem clean energy can easily solve.

Portugal grid averages 103% renewable electricity over month of March; government suspends power supply subsidies in April.

New report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance highlights how wind and solar technologies paired with battery storage are already beating new coal and gas fired generators on cost.

Solar PV and wind power are rapidly getting cheaper and more abundant – so much so that they are on track to entirely supplant fossil fuels worldwide within two decades.

For the first time in 2017, global solar capacity grew faster than all fossil fuels combined, including coal, oil and gas-fired power stations.

Green group coalition CAN Europe is urging the EU to eliminate billions of euros in subsidies to support energy intensive industries such as steel and cement, which they say are continuing to pocket public money while doing little to cut emissions.

Cement companies must double their rate of emission reductions to align with the 2C goal of the Paris Agreement, according to a report on Monday from non-profit CDP, which found EU ETS-regulated firms in particular lagging some rivals with operations in uncapped emerging economies.

Dogs don't follow the rules on larger animals living longer. A 70kg Great Dane is lucky to reach seven years, but a 4kg Chihuahua can live for 10 years or more. Susan Hazel, Senior Lecturer, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A proposal that all imported vegetable seeds be treated with fungicide has drawn outrage from Australia's organic producers, who fear losing their certification. Karen Barry, Senior Lecturer, Plant Pathology, University of Tasmania Alistair Gracie, Associate Professor in Horticultural Science, University of Tasmania Jason Scott, Senior Lecturer, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Expected charges against Norman Farming likely to throw spotlight on poor federal and state administration of Murray-Darling funds

Fraud charges are expected to be laid against one of Queensland’s biggest cotton irrigators, John Norman, within a matter of weeks.

If the trial of the owner-operator of Norman Farming, and former “cotton farmer of the year goes ahead, it is likely to draw attention to the links between the irrigator’s family and that of the federal minister for agriculture and water resources, David Littleproud.

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The ‘custodian’ of the Alladale estate wants to turn it into a fenced-off wildlife reserve

The echoes of Scotland’s predator prince faded into silence three centuries ago. The wolf was once lord of these Sutherland slopes and the forest floors beneath and now a voice in the wilderness is calling him home.

Paul Lister acquired the Alladale estate, 50 miles north of Inverness, in 2003 and immediately set about creating a wilderness reserve according to his perception of what these wild and beautiful places ought to look like. He can’t imagine them without the packs of wolves that once roamed free here.

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