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Fukushima operator struggles to build ice wall to contain radioactive water

The Guardian - Tue, 2014-06-17 20:01
Tepco says it is behind schedule with scheme because temperature of pipes sunk into ground is not low enough

The operator of Japan's battered Fukushima nuclear power plant has said it is having trouble with the early stages of an ice wall being built under broken reactors to contain radioactive water.

Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has begun digging the trenches for a huge network of pipes under the plant through which it intends to pass refrigerant.

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Western Australian Abalone Managed Fishery

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2014-06-16 14:57
Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 17 July 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

In charts: how a revenue neutral carbon tax creates jobs, grows the economy | Dana Nuccitelli

The Guardian - Fri, 2014-06-13 23:00

A new study from REMI finds that a revenue neutral carbon tax could create 2.8 million jobs, increase GDP by $1.3 trillion

A revenue-neutral carbon tax or fee is a proposed policy to address global warming that's become increasingly popular, particularly in the US. It's a simple concept – put a much needed price on carbon pollution, but return all the revenue that's generated to taxpayers (for example with a monthly refund) to offset rising energy costs. This approach appeals to political conservatives, because it's a free market solution that doesn't increase the size of government.

British Columbia (BC) launched a revenue-neutral carbon fee in 2008, with the tax offset through a matching reduction income taxes. So far it's been very successful, decreasing carbon pollution while the BC economy performed just as well as the rest of Canada's. The carbon tax has 64% support among BC voters.

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Feral pigs targeted to save endangered turtles

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2014-06-12 16:00
Feral pigs will be targeted under a joint State and Federal Government initiative to aid marine turtle recovery and continue the war on pests.
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Pentagon preparing for mass civil breakdown | Nafeez Ahmed

The Guardian - Thu, 2014-06-12 16:00
Social science is being militarised to develop 'operational tools' to target peaceful activists and protest movements

A US Department of Defense (DoD) research programme is funding universities to model the dynamics, risks and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world, under the supervision of various US military agencies. The multi-million dollar programme is designed to develop immediate and long-term "warfighter-relevant insights" for senior officials and decision makers in "the defense policy community," and to inform policy implemented by "combatant commands."

Launched in 2008 – the year of the global banking crisis – the DoD 'Minerva Research Initiative' partners with universities "to improve DoD's basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the US."

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Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2014-06-12 15:55
Australian Government commits $1 million for the Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership. The Gladstone Healthy Harbour Partnership is a forum to bring together parties to work towards the highest environmental standards for Gladstone Harbour.
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Australian Government Reef Achievements (2008 - 2013)

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2014-06-12 15:40
This report provides information on the success of the Australian Government investments to reduce nutrient, pesticide and sediment discharge into the reef from broadscale landuse over the period 2008 to 2013.
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Gladstone Bund Wall Review

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2014-06-12 15:26
An independent review into the leaking bund wall at the Port of Gladstone is announced by the Minister for Environment to ensure that the ecological health of our oceans and harbours are protected.
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Famous French bear Balou found dead in Pyrenees

The Guardian - Wed, 2014-06-11 20:43
Balou was in competition with the alpha male of the southern European mountains, 26-year-old Pyros, who is believed to have fathered all other males in the region

One of France's celebrated and controversial brown bears, introduced from Slovenia, has been found dead in the Pyrenees.

Experts say the animal, aged just 11 – who boasted actors Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant as "godparents" – appeared to have fallen.

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Britain's abandoned whale hunting stations - in pictures

The Guardian - Tue, 2014-06-10 19:23

Between 1909 and 1965, the whaling station of Leith Harbour on South Georgia was one of the busiest whaling stations in the world, with more than 48,000 whales processed into oil for margarine, bone meal for fertiliser and other products. Last November, a film crew was granted access to the abandoned whaling stations, and a new BBC4 documentary shows the remains of whaling life, and the wildlife that is re-colonising Leith Harbour.

Britain's Whale Hunters: The Untold Story is on BBC 4 on Monday 9th and 16th June, at 9pm.

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Notice WTR2014/1 Online Permit Applications for Coral Exporters

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2014-06-10 10:51
Advice on the online permits application system which enables exporters to apply for their permit using a smart form. Using the online system, exporters are able to apply for CITES export permits for specimens sourced from an approved fishery.
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Alpha-male bear facing castration as sexual dominance threatens population

The Guardian - Mon, 2014-06-09 01:51
Officials in the Pyrenees are considering how to curb the sexual appetite of Pyros the bear to give his rivals a chance to mate

The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong

An elderly brown bear in the Pyrenees is facing castration or segregation amid fears that his sexual dominance is threatening the species' survival in the region by limiting genetic diversity.

Pyros, one of the oldest of the 30 or so bears who roam the mountains between France and Spain, is the father, grandfather or great-grandfather of nearly all of the cubs born in the Pyrenees over the past two decades. There are four other males in the colony – only one of them is not related to Pyros – and none of them have fathered any offspring.

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The dolphin who loved me: the Nasa-funded project that went wrong

The Guardian - Sun, 2014-06-08 19:00
In the 1960s, Margaret Lovatt was part of a Nasa-funded project to communicate with dolphins. Soon she was living with 'Peter' 24 hours a day in a converted house. Christopher Riley reports on an experiment that went tragically wrong

Like most children, Margaret Howe Lovatt grew up with stories of talking animals. "There was this book that my mother gave to me called Miss Kelly," she remembers with a twinkle in her eye. "It was a story about a cat who could talk and understand humans and it just stuck with me that maybe there is this possibility."

Unlike most children, Lovatt didn't leave these tales of talking animals behind her as she grew up. In her early 20s, living on the Caribbean island of St Thomas, they took on a new significance. During Christmas 1963, her brother-in-law mentioned a secret laboratory at the eastern end of the island where they were working with dolphins. She decided to pay the lab a visit early the following year. "I was curious," Lovatt recalls. "I drove out there, down a muddy hill, and at the bottom was a cliff with a big white building."

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Europe's vultures under threat from drug that killed millions of birds in Asia

The Guardian - Sat, 2014-06-07 21:06
After an ecological disaster in India, wildlife groups call for ban on vets using diclofenac in Italy and Spain

Wildlife groups have launched a Europe-wide campaign to outlaw a newly approved veterinary drug that has caused the deaths of tens of millions of vultures in Asia. They say that the decision to allow diclofenac to be used in Spain and Italy not only threatens to wipe out Europe's vultures but could harm other related species, including the golden eagle and the Spanish imperial eagle, one of the world's rarest raptors.

Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory agent and painkiller, was introduced around the end of the 20th century in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh to treat sick cattle. But when the cattle's carcasses were eaten by vultures, the birds contracted a fatal kidney condition. Within a few years, vulture numbers had declined by a staggering 99.9% across south Asia. The worst-affected species included long-billed, slender-billed and oriental white-backed vultures. Dead cattle were left to rot without vultures to consume their flesh. Packs of feral dogs grew to fill the ecological gap. The risk of rabies also rose, said health experts. Now diclofenac has been approved for use in Italy and Spain.

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The claim of a 97% consensus on global warming does not stand up | Richard Tol

The Guardian - Sat, 2014-06-07 00:59

Consensus is irrelevant in science. There are plenty of examples in history where everyone agreed and everyone was wrong

Dana Nuccitelli writes that I “accidentally confirm the results of last year’s 97% global warming consensus study”. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I show that the 97% consensus claim does not stand up.

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Arctic 30: Russia releases Greenpeace ship

The Guardian - Fri, 2014-06-06 21:05

Russian authorities have released the Arctic Sunrise, which was involved in a high-profile protest against Arctic oil drilling

The Greenpeace icebreaker confiscated by Russia after activists tried to board a Gazprom oil rig has been released. But it could take two months before the Arctic Sunrise leaves Murmansk harbour, according to the campaigning group.

The ship was boarded by the Russian coast guard and towed 500 miles from the Pechora Sea to the northern Russian port of Murmansk in September 2013. Thirty activists, including six Britons, were arrested and accused of hooliganism and piracy.

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Tasmanian Giant Crab Fishery

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2014-06-06 13:43
Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 9 July 2014.
Categories: Around The Web

Scientists warn against China's plan to flatten over 700 mountains

The Guardian - Thu, 2014-06-05 03:00

Environmental consequences of removing hills to create more land for cities not considered, academics say in Nature paper

Scientists have criticised China's bulldozing of hundreds of mountains to provide more building land for cities.

In a paper published in journal Nature this week, three Chinese academics say plan to remove over 700 mountains and shovel debris into valleys to create 250 sq km of flat land has not been sufficiently considered “environmentally, technically or economically.”

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Community Impacts of Coal Seam Gas

Newsletters QLD - Wed, 2014-06-04 18:25
Community Impacts of Coal Seam Gas
Categories: Newsletters QLD

Jamaica's rare wildlife – in pictures

The Guardian - Tue, 2014-06-03 00:48

The Portland Bight protected area is home to the iconic Jamaican iguana and 20 other endangered species. Its fragile coastal ecosystem and wildlife faces the risk of being lost for ever as Jamaica approves a Chinese company to build a port. Photographs by Robin Moore

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