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Game of Thrones star in Greenland for Google Street View

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 22:46

GoT’s Jaime Lannister has shown little love for the far north, unlike the man who plays him, Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who has been collecting street view imagery for Google in southern Greenland to highlight the impact of climate change

• Discover Machu Picchu from your sofa

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Categories: Around The Web

New support for British spaceports

BBC - Thu, 2017-02-09 21:46
Plans to launch satellites - and even people - from the UK get a boost from government.
Categories: Around The Web

Whistleblower: ‘I knew people would misuse this.’ They did - to attack climate science | Dana Nuccitelli

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 21:00

Fake news propagates through the conservative media to the halls of Congress where science is under attack

This weekend, conservative media outlets launched an attack on climate scientists with a manufactured scandal. The fake news originated from an accusation made by former NOAA scientist John Bates about a 2015 paper by some of his NOAA colleagues. The technical term to describe the accusation is ‘a giant nothingburger,’ as Bates clarified in an interview with E&E News:

The issue here is not an issue of tampering with data, but rather really of timing of a release of a paper that had not properly disclosed everything it was.

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Ivory is not beautiful, it’s barbaric | Nicky Campbell

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 20:42

I grew up with a piano in my bedroom, but now the thought of ivory fills me with revulsion. The UK needs to impose a total ban on the trade of elephant tusks

Growing up in our two up, two down terraced house on the Southside of Edinburgh, I shared my bedroom with a cherished family heirloom – my granny’s mini-grand. This beautiful piano had been to the other side of the world and back. It ended up taking up half my room and a whole lot of my life. I taught myself to play on it, bashing out the sevenths while pretending to be (pre-Wings) McCartney. Now I think of that piano with total revulsion. I believe anyone in the possession of ivory should feel the same. It is over. It has to be.

Look at the knife handles or antique toothpick and then think of the dead mother with her face hacked off as her tuskless, helpless one-year-old tries to nudge her back to life. Google image search is always a useful resource. I feel no differently about the thought of a gorilla-hand ashtray (yes, they are a thing in parts of the Far East) or a nice cool glass of lion bone wine (ditto). One more time: ivory is so over.

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Get a job with Adani and infiltrate coal project, activists urge supporters

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 17:53

Galilee Blockade, which opposes the $16bn Carmichael mine, urges followers to apply for jobs with the Indian company

A civil disobedience campaign targeting Adani’s controversial Queensland coal project has asked almost 12,000 supporters to sign up for a job with the miner.

The Galilee Blockade is working on infiltrating Adani and related companies to gain sources of information to help its plans for “direct action”.

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Dakota Access Pipeline: ETP firm to resume work immediately

BBC - Thu, 2017-02-09 16:00
The decision comes after Donald Trump formally backed the pipeline in an early act as president.
Categories: Around The Web

The lapwing's unearthly sounds fill the fields

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 15:30

Sandy, Bedfordshire: Peewit, teeack, chewit … whatever you call it, it sounds like the Clangers

Unearthly sounds have filled the fields lately, breaking frosty silences or cocking a whooping snook at louring skies. The lapwing’s voice is the joker in the pack, shooting up and down the scales like a novice twiddling the knobs on a synthesiser. It does not feel grounded in this landscape of puddles, mud slaked over boots, ragged grass margins, finches giving out throwaway chirrups, and the dull ribbed skeleton leftovers of last year’s flowers.

Our field-working forebears must have listened daily and tried to capture the distinctive peculiarity of these sounds in words. So much so that Vanellus vanellus may well have more regional names than any other bird. Lancashire’s chewit calls to Orkney’s teeack, Norfolk’s pie-wipe answers Lothian’s peasiewheep. I’m a child of the TV generation, and I always think when I hear the birds that the Clangers have landed.

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Almost 90% of new energy in Europe from renewable sources in 2016

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 15:00

Wind energy overtakes coal as the EU’s second largest form of power capacity but concerns remain over politicians’ enthusiasm for renewables

Renewable energy made up nearly nine-tenths of new power added to Europe’s electricity grids last year, in a sign of the continent’s rapid shift away from fossil fuels.

But industry leaders said they were worried about the lack of political support beyond 2020, when binding EU renewable energy targets end.

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Ecoult battery tapped for major India solar + storage trial

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-02-09 13:39
Australian owned, CSIRO-developed battery storage technology tested as possible solution for powering remote, rural communities in India.
Categories: Around The Web

Sun Metals goes for bigger solar plant to hedge against energy costs

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-02-09 13:37
Korean-owned zinc refiner ups size of proposed Qld solar farm to 116MW, casting shade on claim renewables are a "manufacturing killer".
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Snake regurgitates tennis ball after mistaking it for food – video

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 13:35

With the help of snake handlers and Trish Prendergast, a senior veterinary nurse at a clinic in Townsville, Queensland, the 1.5m-long carpet python manages to regurgitate an entire tennis ball after it was found swollen in a residential yard.

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Greedy energy industry, too clever by half, kicks an own goal

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-02-09 13:18
South Australia threatens to take "decisive action" to regain control of the energy industry. The privately owned generators only have themselves to blame.
Categories: Around The Web

AGL looks to large-scale battery storage as alternative to gas

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-02-09 13:00
AGL says it expects large-scale battery storage will play a critical role in the changing nature of Australia's electricity grid.
Categories: Around The Web

Conservatives push carbon tax to address climate crisis

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-02-09 12:46
A group of prominent US Republicans has proposed a carbon tax that pays cash dividends to Americans.
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Orangutan squeaks reveal language evolution, says study

BBC - Thu, 2017-02-09 10:54
The way orangutans communicate could shed light on humans' first words.
Categories: Around The Web

Bolivia declares emergency over locust plague

BBC - Thu, 2017-02-09 10:42
Fumigation must start immediately to avoid further destruction on the main agricultural area.
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Coal-reliant NSW faces rolling blackouts as accusations fly in South Australia

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-02-09 09:47
AEMO warns of rolling blackouts on Friday for coal-dependent NSW as the summer heatwave continues across Australia. SA faced similar problems on Wednesday – but in that state, renewables are again taking the blame.
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Battle lines drawn in new round of the 'forest wars'

ABC Environment - Thu, 2017-02-09 05:36
As regional forest agreements come up for renewal starting later this year in Tasmania, forest biodiversity continues to decline while jobs and the timber resource are still far from secure.
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Supermarkets' waste sugar to help feed bees

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 05:08

Tesco’s waste sugar goes to Cornish apiculture scheme as honey bees go short of nectar and rely on keepers’ winter syrup

Waste sugar routinely thrown away by supermarkets is being collected to help feed stricken bees in Britain struggling to get enough nectar to feed themselves.

Related: Pesticides stop bees buzzing and releasing pollen, says study

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Powershop reveals cash for renewable projects from customers who paid more

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-02-09 05:01

Energy retailer raised $100,000 from customers, which will be given out as grants to community-owned energy projects

Amid fresh attacks on renewable energy targets from the federal government and large energy retailer ERM Power, smaller electricity retailer Powershop has raised $100,000 from its customers to be given out as grants to 10 community-owned projects around the country.

Three months ago Powershop launched the Your Community Energy initiative, where they gave customers the opportunity to pay higher rates, which it said would then be distributed to renewable energy projects that were community-owned.

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