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Move aims to protect nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains off the coast of New England

President Barack Obama will establish on Thursday the first national marine monument in the Atlantic, a move that’s designed to permanently protect nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains off the coast of New England.

The White House said the designation will lead to a ban on commercial fishing, mining and drilling, though a seven-year exception will occur for the lobster and red crab industries. Also, recreational fishing will be allowed within the monument.

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China is set to launch a second experimental space station Tiangong 2, as it looks to have a manned station by around 2022, state media say.

DYE PIONEERS: The blue indigo dye commonly used in today's jeans was used by pre-Hispanic communities in Peru around 6,000 years ago.

Beautiful yet terrifying, Edward Burtynsky’s aerial photography is a reminder of just how much human activity has affected the planet – as industry and agriculture leave indelible scars everywhere

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A report by Swiss NGO Public Eye says businesses in Europe are exporting highly polluting, high-sulphur diesel to the African market that could never be sold at pumps in their home countries, exploiting weak fuel standards there

All photographs: Carl De Keyzer/Magnum Photos

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Diego the tortoise, 100, has fathered around 800 offspring on his native Galapagos Archipelago.

Combining PV with a storage solution, homeowners gain from a variety of possibilities and benefits. However, it is important to know how to select the right kind of storage solution..

Cast: AdelaideSBN

Doñana wetlands in Andalusia is home to thousands of species but has lost most of its natural water due to industry and faces ‘danger’ listing by Unesco

A Spanish wetland home to 2,000 species of wildlife – including around 6 million migratory birds – is on track to join a Unesco world heritage danger list, according to a new report.

Doñana is an Andalusian reserve of sand dunes, shallow streams and lagoons, stretching for 540 square kilometres (209 square miles) where flamingoes feed and wild horses and Iberian lynx still roam.

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Blanchland, Northumberland The sexton beetle can detect ‘the irresistible bouquet of death’ from a mile away

As we climbed the hill the low cloud thinned then became wisps of mist. Patches of blue sky began to appear. Soon the heat of the rising sun would dry the droplets of water clinging to hawkbit seed heads beside the path, and their parachute of hairs would expand, carrying them away to join a blizzard of downy thistle and willowherb seeds drifting on the breeze.

The aroma of September, of damp earth and decaying grass, hung in the air, though there was, as yet, no hint of autumn colour in the trees. Fungi, the great recyclers, were already at work.

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Victoria plans biggest investment in new generation capacity in Australia since creation of the National Electricity Market. It would do well to learn from South Africa.

New analysis makes bold claim that renewable power generation costs are already lower on average worldwide than generation costs of fossil fuels.

BNEF analyst Ethan Zindler says world on verge of substantial solar PV oversupply; bad news for manufacturers, good news for installers, end-users – and Australia.

Malcolm Turnbull's signature Clean Energy Innovation Fund is to be stripped of nearly all its monies. Apparently, there is such a thing as too much innovation.

As the reality of climate change is accepted, the focus shifts from the science to economic and social outcomes – and the conversation gets way harder.

Tasmania has had a damaging year, with the island state hit by a series of bushfires and floods.

Now a comprehensive new assessment of Tasmania’s exposure to natural disasters shows that bushfire remains the number one hazard to people and property, while also highlighting a range of new threats. These include coastal flooding, pandemic influenza and – despite being Australia’s most southerly state – an increasing likelihood of heatwaves.

The 2016 Tasmanian State Natural Disaster Risk Assessment (TSNDRA) aims to provide emergency services with key information to help prepare for and reduce the impact of disasters.

It is the first state-level assessment in Australia that adheres to the recently updated National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines. All states and territories are required to produce their own risk assessments by June 2017. Given Tasmania’s unprecedented recent run of natural disasters, it is fitting that it should be the first state to publish a comprehensive roundup of the risks.

The assessment of natural disaster risk took place over 12 months from March 2015. It involved a series of workshops and online surveys of experts in each hazard area.

For the first time, the process was led not by state government agencies, but by a close collaboration between researchers at the University of Tasmania, RMIT University and the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, together with members of the State Emergency Service and related agencies, and other stakeholders including the Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Red Cross and Engineers Australia. The process aimed to allow a range of different voices to inform the identification of priority risks for Tasmania.

Each workshop considered the underlying risk of different natural hazards, as well as considering the consequences of worst-case scenarios for each hazard, such as the 1967 bushfires or the 1929 Launceston floods.

The use of a “confidence” rating – a new addition to the assessment process – allowed for uncertainty in data, or disagreement between experts. This enabled us both to identify gaps in overall knowledge about different natural hazards and to weight the advice of different stakeholders appropriately.

Bushfire is the highest risk, but Tasmania’s hazard profile is changing

Perhaps not surprisingly, our results showed that the risks of bushfires, floods and severe storms continue to figure prominently in Tasmania. Bushfire remains the greatest aggregated risk, as illustrated below.

Such “catastrophic” scenarios could result in one in 10,000 deaths, or an economic loss of greater than 4% of gross state product. Furthermore, the likelihood of a catastrophic bushfire event is increasing as our climate changes.

Three new “emerging” risks were added to this 2016 assessment. These additions reflect either improvements in information availability or shifting likelihoods of an event occurring. The emerging risks are heatwaves (now acknowledged as the most dangerous hazard in Australia in terms of deaths caused), pandemic influenza (which can potentially affect a large area for a prolonged time), and coastal inundation (which will grow more likely as sea levels rise).

Better prepared for disaster

The report updates and builds on an earlier assessment published in 2012. This allows the state’s risk profile to be tracked over time as conditions continue to change. The improvement in hazard knowledge, changes in socio-economic and environmental conditions, and the implementation of new treatments or controls by state authorities as new disasters occur mean the risks we face will need to be continually re-assessed into the future.

Based on the new risk registers for each hazard, a separate expert workshop developed a portfolio of potential treatment options for the most at-risk sectors. These include, for example, recommending the continuation of the successful fuel-reduction program and the updating of flood-evacuation plans for at-risk communities, as well as putting forward new or enhanced treatment options such the creation of a state-wide flood hazard map and the expansion of existing disaster preparedness programs.

The treatment options also highlight key research gaps around such topics as coincident extreme events or the impact of heatwaves on Tasmania’s population. This portfolio is being refined to help prioritise new risk-reduction actions across Tasmania.

While the report is mainly aimed to inform the State Emergency Management Committee, its findings are also relevant to a range of authorities, agencies and individuals with responsibilities for emergency risk management. Hazard fact sheets and a summary document to inform Tasmanian communities are available via the report links below.

The TSNDRA 2016 report, summary report and hazard fact sheets are available for download from the Tasmania State Emergency Service or the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre.

Chris White receives funding from various Tasmanian State Government research funding programs, Wine Australia and the Bushfire and Natural Hazard CRC.

Alexei Trundle previously received funding from the Tasmanian State Government, and currently receives an Australian Postgraduate Award from the Australian Government.

Darryn McEvoy receives funding from a variety of research funding organisations.

Stuart Corney receives funding from various Tasmanian State Government research funding programs and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC.

Tomas Remenyi receives research funding from Wine Australia and various Australian State Government agencies and research programs.

These sessions will provide information and guidance on how to achieve carbon neutral certification. Participants will also have the opportunity to hear from organisations already certified and to develop business to business contacts across and...

Victoria regulator makes landmark decision on solar feed in tariffs that could have implications for other states. But does it go far enough?

Study shows going 100% renewables would be cheaper than staying connected to the main grid for Kangaroo Island. But the decision on what to do will be a significant national and international test case for numerous other communities considering similar decisions, as well as network operators and regulators.

With about 72 million tonnes of coal stockpiled at mines and power stations,enough fuel for over 50 days operation – and power demand growth running lower than forecast.