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Stonehenge builders 'ate food from Scotland'

BBC - Thu, 2017-10-19 09:50
Animals were transported from as far away as the north east of Scotland to the Neolithic site in Wiltshire.
Categories: Around The Web

JinkoSolar p-type multi-crystalline silicon solar cells achieve new world record in conversion efficiency again

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-10-19 09:39
JinkoSolar Holding Co today announced that its practical sized P-type multi-crystalline silicon solar cells reached the world’s highest conversion efficiency of 22.04%
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Lights Out! The dark side of demand management

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-10-19 07:52
Self serving and misleading comments from CEO of one of the country's iconic energy businesses need to be held up as a shining example of how recent energy summit forgot about one key person: the customer.
Categories: Around The Web

Hang ten (decades): Walter Munk, inventor of the surf forecast, turns 100

The Conversation - Thu, 2017-10-19 05:18
Walter Munk might be the most under-appreciated man in surfing, but he is a big deal in ocean science. If you've ever checked a surf forecast before paddling out, you have him to thank. Paul Spence, Senior Lecturer, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Shane Keating, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics and Oceanography, UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-10-19 04:00

Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say

The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists.

Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society.

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CliFi – A new way to talk about climate change | John Abraham

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-18 20:00

If you’re not familiar with the new genre of climate fiction, you might be soon.

Cli-Fi refers to “climate fiction;” it is a term coined by journalist Dan Bloom. These are fictional books that somehow or someway bring real climate change science to the reader. What is really interesting is that Cli-Fi books often present real science in a credible way. They become fun teaching tools. There are some really well known authors such as Paolo Bacigalupi and Margaret Atwood among others. A list of other candidate Cli-Fi novels was provided by Sarah Holding in the Guardian.

What makes a Cli-Fi novel good? Well in my opinion, it has to have some real science in it. And it has to get the science right. Second, it has to be fun to read. When done correctly, Cli-Fi can connect people to their world; it can help us understand what future climate may be like, or what current climate effects are.

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NSW town aims for 100 per cent renewable energy

ABC Environment - Wed, 2017-10-18 17:25
The New South Wales town of Tyalgum says there's no time to wait for the Federal Government to figure out what it's going to do about Australia's energy future, so it's going 'off grid'.
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Banded stilts fly hundreds of kilometres to lay eggs that are over 50% of their body mass

The Conversation - Wed, 2017-10-18 16:15
A new study gives insight into the strange breeding behaviour of banded stilts. These water birds fly thousand of kilometres to nest in temporary desert salt lakes. Reece Pedler, PhD student, Deakin University Andy T.D. Bennett, Professor, Deakin University Raoul Ribot, Lecturer in Ecology, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Government set to face fresh legal challenge over air pollution crisis

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-18 15:01

Legal NGO ClientEarth to take the government back to court if it fails to set out a new range of measures to tackle Britain’s toxic air

Environmental campaigners are set to take the government back to court over what they say are ministers’ repeated failings to deal with the UK’s air pollution crisis.

ClientEarth, which has already won two court battles against the government, has written a legal letter demanding that the environment secretary Michael Gove sets out a range of new measures to address air pollution which contributes to the deaths of 40,000 people across the UK each year.

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Why Turnbull’s plan could be disaster for renewables, climate, prices

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-18 14:45
NEG appears to be the most ill-considered, poorly detailed and potentially useless policy that anyone can remember, and a disaster for renewable energy, climate targets and consumer prices. It appears to be the work of Australia's so-called "energy mafia", hungry to retain power of incumbent oligopoly.
Categories: Around The Web

Country diary: the air is heavy with the scent of apples

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-18 14:30

St Dominic, Tamar Valley Black Rocks and Crimson Queens and Green Chisel pears – colourful fruit with colourful names on show at Cotehele’s Apple Day

Sheltered from rain, inside the display tent at Cotehele’s Apple Day, the perfume of juice and ripe fruit pervades the damp air. Examples of different varieties are pinned to a board and Mary and James (my sister and brother-in-law) have laid out a lavish array from their orchard of local varieties, gathered on rare dry days during recent weeks.

A basket of pears, decorated with swags of rose hips and sloes, includes the large Aston Town (originally found in a pub garden at Launceston), Green Chisel (possibly the Hastings pear), green sweats, various harvest pears, grey and red Catterns, all awaiting the results of genetic tests to confirm their identities.

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It’s the end, not the means, that counts

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-18 14:30
Amongst all the sound and fury regarding the Government’s energy plan there is a central question going unanswered - what is the level of emissions reduction being proposed by the Government? And at what cost?
Categories: Around The Web

The no-name policy with little chance of reducing power prices

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-18 14:18
The runway to strong emission reductions at an affordable price is at risk of being thrown away under the Coaliton's new policy, which could require retailers to buy the output from its own expensive Snowy Hydro project. The energy mafia would approve.
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'The threats continue​’: murder of retired couple chills fellow activists in Turkey

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-10-18 14:00

The killing of two activists who successfully campaigned to shut down a mine has shocked environmentalists in Turkey who fear their deaths will embolden others to kill to protect their profits

Interactive: recording the deaths of environmental activists around the world

Cedar branches whisper in the Anatolian breeze. Twigs crunch underfoot. A truck rumbles from a distant marble quarry. The crack of a hunter’s rifle echoes through the forest.

The sounds of tranquility and violence intermingle at the remote hillside home of Aysin and Ali Büyüknohutçu, the Turkish beekeepers and environmental defenders whose murder in Finike earlier this year has sent a chill through the country’s conservation movement.

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States gobsmacked by lack of detail, research in Turnbull’s NEG

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-18 13:46
States stunned by lack of detail in new energy policy. In a testy phone hook-up they were told all the government had was a press release and an eight-page letter.
Categories: Around The Web

Origin backs NEG, even though it fails to match climate target

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-18 13:28
Origin Energy's newly released decarbonisation plan shows the gen-tailer is taking climate change rather more seriously than the Coalition.
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On Turnbull’s electricity trilemma, are we being negged?

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-18 13:05
The Australian public has been ‘negged’ by unfounded fears of blackouts. Will we be 'negged' again by the proposed new energy policy?
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The government's energy policy hinges on some tricky wordplay about coal's role

The Conversation - Wed, 2017-10-18 11:48
By rebranding coal as 'dispatchable', the government's National Energy Guarantee looks set to preserve demand for coal-fired power by giving it a new role – one it's not well equipped to fulfil. John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
Categories: Around The Web

China set to add 50GW new solar PV in 2017

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-10-18 11:20
China has installed 42GW of new solar PV in 2017 so far, putting it on track to reach a record 50GW for the year. Meanwhile, in battery storage...
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Photo of butchered rhino wins top award

BBC - Wed, 2017-10-18 10:14
A shocking image of a dehorned black rhino makes Brent Stirton Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Categories: Around The Web

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