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CEFC tips $150m into big solar projects in NSW

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-02-01 13:59
NSW set to double its solar capacity after CEFC stumps up $150m to fast-track financial close of 110MW of solar projects.
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Three signs that the Great Energy Disruption is already here

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-02-01 13:49
Three recent news items tell the story that a game-changing decline in the cost of grid storage is happening much faster than anticipated.
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Energy a “defining debate” of this parliament: Turnbull’s key NPC comments

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-02-01 13:12
PM tells National Press Club energy is "a key debate" in 2017 parliament. Here are Malcolm Turnbull's key comments on the subject.
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Australian scientists use soybean oil to create graphene

BBC - Wed, 2017-02-01 12:30
Australian researchers say their discovery could significantly lower the material's cost to produce.
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Australia sharks: Campaigners call for end to nets

BBC - Wed, 2017-02-01 12:28
Conservationists say the nets are killing too many dolphins and turtles.
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Ergon Energy signs 12-year PPA for 100MW Qld solar farm

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-02-01 11:31
Queensland government-owned Ergon Energy Retail inks another solar PPA, this time for 12 years with FRV's 100MW Liliyvale Solar Farm.
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'Tuberculosis-resistant' cattle developed in China

BBC - Wed, 2017-02-01 11:05
Scientists in China say they have produced cloned cattle with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis.
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Investors back 1000s of MW of new solar projects in Australia – just don’t mention the RET

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-02-01 10:33
As renewables are used as a political football, investors and energy companies are getting on with the job, with major Asian investor group Equis announcing 200MW of 'battery ready' solar projects in Australia, with plans for another 1000MW in the near future.
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Eos Energy Storage Partners with Environment One to Manufacture Grid-Scale Battery Systems in Upstate New York

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-02-01 08:23
E/One sets new standard in safe and environmentally sound production of utility energy storage.
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Volunteers receive award for work removing invasive species

ABC Environment - Wed, 2017-02-01 07:14
When keen bushwalker Jon Marsden-Smedley first started telling people of his plan to rid southwest Tasmania's coast of sea spurge—an invasive weed—he was told he was dreaming.
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New EPA chief 'a real product of the Exxon machine': Earth Justice

ABC Environment - Wed, 2017-02-01 05:49
The coal, oil and gas industries have raised 'lots of dark money' for Scott Pruitt, President Trump's pick as head of the US EPA, says Earth Justice.
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Indigenous federation sues Peru over new national park

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-02-01 04:51

Oil and gas concession overlaps 1.3m hectare “protected area” inhabited by indigenous peoples in “isolation”

One of the almost 100 resolutions adopted by the World Conservation Congress (WCC) held in Hawai’i in September 2016 was that “protected areas” such as national parks should be “no go” for mining, oil and gas operations, agriculture, dams, roads and pipelines. Another resolution was that indigenous peoples’ territories overlapped by “protected areas” should be recognised and respected, calling upon International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) members, non-member States and others to do so.

While it might not seem particularly significant or startling to demand that “protected areas” should be, er, protected from such damaging activities as oil operations, and while WCC resolutions aren’t legally-binding on anyone, such calls do urgently need to be made. Take as an example Peru, the country that, according to the IUCN, established more “protected areas” than any other in 2016. Undoubtedly its most important conservation achievement in recent years has been the creation of the 1.3m hectare Sierra del Divisor National Park, although approximately 40% is included in an oil and gas concession ultimately controlled by a Canadian-headquartered company, Pacific Exploration and Production.

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Air pollution crisis ‘plagues’ UK, finds UN human rights expert

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-02-01 03:23

‘Silent pandemic’ of air pollution affects UK children and there is no indication protection against toxic waste will be retained after Brexit

Air pollution is a crisis that “plagues” the UK, particularly children, according to the UN’s special rapporteur on hazardous substances and wastes.

Baskut Tuncak, who was appointed by the UN human rights council and completed a 15-day mission to the UK on Tuesday, said there was an “urgent need for political will by the UK government to make timely, measurable and meaningful interventions”.

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Meet the ex-policeman who saves seahorses

BBC - Wed, 2017-02-01 03:14
Paul Ferber, an ex-British policeman who lives on Koh Seh in the Gulf of Thailand, tells World Service how he catches illegal fishermen plundering Cambodia's ecosystem.
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'Startling' dinosaur protein discovery

BBC - Wed, 2017-02-01 02:00
Ancient proteins dating back 195 million years have been found inside a dinosaur bone.
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'Tinder for orangutans': Dutch zoo to let female choose mate on a tablet

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-02-01 00:52

Orangutan Samboja will be shown males on a touchscreen in experiment aimed at learning more about mating choices

A Dutch zoo hopes to increase the breeding chances of a female orangutan by seeing if she will choose a preferred mate on a touchscreen before they are introduced.

In a four-year experiment it has called “Tinder for orangutans”, the Apenheul primate park in Apeldoorn will show Samboja, an 11-year-old female, pictures of possible partners from an international great ape breeding programme.

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Bill would sell off 3.3m acres of national land, unnerving outdoor enthusiasts

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-01-31 23:43

Land totaling the size of Connecticut has been targeted in a new bill in the Republican House, uniting hunters and conservationists in opposition

Now that Republicans have quietly drawn a path to give away much of Americans’ public land, US representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah has introduced what the Wilderness Society is calling “step two” in the GOP’s plan to offload federal lands.

The new piece of legislation would direct the secretary of the interior to immediately sell off an area of public land the size of Connecticut. In a press release for House Bill 621, Chaffetz, a Tea Party Republican, claimed that the 3.3m acres of national land, maintained by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), served “no purpose for taxpayers”.

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Bay of Bengal: depleted fish stocks and huge dead zone signal tipping point

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-01-31 23:03

Long treated as a bottomless resource pit, over-exploitation of the ocean, pollution and rising sea levels are having a catastrophic impact on life in the bay

The Bay of Bengal’s basin contains some of the most populous regions of the earth. No less than a quarter of the world’s population is concentrated in the eight countries that border the bay1. Approximately 200 million people live along the Bay of Bengal’s coasts and of these a major proportion are partially or wholly dependent on its fisheries2.

For the majority of those who depend on it, the Bay of Bengal can provide no more than a meagre living: 61% of India’s fisherfolk already live below the poverty line. Yet the numbers dependent on fisheries are only likely to grow in years to come, partly because of climate change. In southern India drought and water scarcity have already induced tens of thousands of farmers to join the fishing fleet3. Rising sea levels are also likely to drive many displaced people into the fishing industry.

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Trump's copying the Bush censorship playbook. Scientists aren't standing for it | Dana Nuccitelli

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-01-31 21:00

The Trump Administration keeps trying to go after scientists, and being forced to retreat

During the George W. Bush Administration, political appointees censored climate science reports from government agencies, and mostly got away with it by gagging the scientists. A survey found that nearly half of 1,600 government scientists at seven agencies ranging from NASA to the EPA had been warned against using terms like “global warming” in reports or speeches, throughout Bush’s eight-year presidency.

Unaccustomed to being strong-armed by their own administrators, some government scientists reacted with what former US Climate Change Science Program senior associate Rick Piltz called “an anticipatory kind of self-censorship.” As a result, the Bush Administration’s efforts to smother scientific findings concerning global warming in government reports were remarkably effective.

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Judge in environmental activist's trial says climate change is matter of debate

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-01-31 21:00

Controversial statements angered environmentalists who insist courts have an obligation to recognize the science about manmade climate change

A Washington state judge has sparked outrage for remarks questioning the existence of climate change and the role of humans in global warming.

During the high-profile trial of Ken Ward, a climate activist facing 30 years in prison for shutting down an oil pipeline, Judge Michael E Rickert said: “I don’t know what everybody’s beliefs are on [climate change], but I know that there’s tremendous controversy over the fact whether it even exists. And even if people believe that it does or it doesn’t, the extent of what we’re doing to ourselves and our climate and our planet, there’s great controversy over that.”

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