Feed aggregator

The newly found bat is said to be three times the size of an average bat today.

Local residents take part in a day-long experiment to cut traffic and improve air quality.

Modest pollution in many English rivers is enough to kill 80% of eggs, increasing concerns over insects which are vital to all ecosystems

Modest levels of pollution found in many English rivers are having a devastating impact on mayflies, new research suggests, killing about 80% of all eggs.

Clouds of emerging mayflies were once a regular sight on English summer evenings and they are a key part of the food chain that supports fish, birds and mammals. The finding that even pollution well below guidelines can cause serious harm adds to concerns about plummeting insect numbers.

Continue reading...

Following the success of Elon Musk’s 100-megawatt battery in South Australia, another battery and renewable power plant are in the works

Australia’s renewable energy sector responds to the success of South Australia’s Tesla lithium ion battery. South Australia will build the world’s largest solar thermal plant, and a Queensland wind farm may be the site of a new record-breaking battery.

The Aurora solar plant in Port Augusta, SA, will begin construction this year, and is slated to provide 100% of the state’s electricity needs by 2020, the state’s acting energy minister, Chris Picton, announced on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Importers and manufacturers of outdoor power equipment and marine engines without North American or European Union certification are now able to apply to the Department of the Environment and Energy for Australian certification or exemptions.

Importers and manufacturers of outdoor power equipment and marine engines without North American or European Union certification are now able to apply to the Department of the Environment and Energy for Australian certification or exemptions.

Importers and manufacturers of outdoor power equipment and marine engines without North American or European Union certification are now able to apply to the Department of the Environment and Energy for Australian certification or exemptions. Only...

Sandy, Bedfordshire The family of swans has separated, the juveniles driven off by parents ready to breed again

On a snow-flecked night over the holidays, I slipped down to the river and paused on the bridge. Floating a little upstream were two brilliant white coracles: sleeping swans, each with its beak folded away in the well between its wings. Anchorless and rudderless, did they lay their heads on feather beds under the weir, in the dreamy expectation that they would wake at dawn in the mill pool? Some overnight sleeper.

Only two swans. The last time I was here, there had been more – a whole family. It is the harshest, most necessary part of a territorial bird’s life that there should come a time when they drive away the young they so diligently nurtured. These birds had given theirs a Christmas present of solitude and self-reliance, and themselves the space to breed again.

Continue reading...

TransGrid has announced Mr Jeremy (Jerry) Maycock will join its Board as Chair from 22 February 2018.

IEEFA’s latest report finds that China continued to set itself up to dominate clean energy sectors during 2017.

The US was hit by a 'bomb cyclone' last week, bringing icy cold and driving snow. These storms develop very rapidly, forming outside the tropics, typically on continental east coasts in winter. Acacia Pepler, Research Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Andrew Dowdy, Senior Research Scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Eun-Pa Lim, Senior research scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Pandora Hope, Senior research scientist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Conservationists want to stop the birds – dubbed the world’s smartest parrot – from wandering onto roads and begging humans for food

Bird experts in New Zealand have designed a special gym for the country’s playful alpine parrot to keep them away from some of the nation’s most dangerous roads.

For the last couple of years contractors working on the road to Milford Sound in the South Island have captured footage of keas moving their road cones and equipment into the middle of the road when the workers knocked off overnight.

Continue reading...

Newly discovered fossils in Germany shed light on the emergence of butterflies and moths.

Theresa May will launch a 25-year plan to improve the environment but green groups say it has no legal force.

PM to declare war on scourge of plastic waste as she unveils much-heralded 25-year environmental plan

Theresa May is to announce a war on plastic waste, with proposed policies including plastics-free aisles in supermarkets and a tax on takeaway containers.

The prime minister will set out her ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste within 25 years in a major speech on Thursday in which she will promise the UK will lead internationally on environmental issues. But campaign groups said the aspirations would need to be backed up by legislation.

Continue reading...

The Bitcoin mania of the last year might be easing, but businesses are finding new ways to use the technology behind the crypto-currency.

After a month of operation, the Tesla battery at Hornsdale Power Reserve in SA has outperforming expectations - and the model is set to be emulated in Victoria Dylan McConnell, Researcher at the Australian German Climate and Energy College, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Astronomers have shed more light on a mysterious source of recurring radio pulses from space.

Ryan Zinke confirmed Florida would be exempt from massive offshore plan – which other states claim is simply a favor for Republican governor Rick Scott

Governors of coastal states have urged the Trump administration to scrap its plan to usher oil and gas drilling into almost all US waters, in an unusual bipartisan backlash against the surprise proposal itself – and the controversial twist that suddenly saw Florida, alone, excused from going along with it.

Related: Trump administration won't allow oil drilling off Florida coast

Continue reading...

State oil company starts second phase of drilling in one of the world’s most biodiverse hotspots

Ecuador’s state oil company has begun drilling the first of 97 planned wells inside a new field of the Yasuní national park, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.

The opening of the Tambococha-2 well has triggered fierce criticism from conservationists, who say President Lenín Moreno is backtracking on a promise to protect the Amazon and pay greater heed to the opinion of indigenous groups.

Continue reading...