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In Season: Winter
Greens to spend $265m on community-owned renewable energy projects
Four-year package, to be announced by Adam Bandt on Saturday, will allow the ventures to generate tax-free profits from the electricity created
The Greens will announce that they will spend $265.2m on community-owned renewable energy projects, including allowing these to generate tax-free profits from the electricity created.
The Greens energy spokesman, Adam Bandt, will announce the four-year package on Saturday in North Fitzroy at an apartment block seeking to establish a community-owned renewable project.
Continue reading...Rural Reporter
Value of eco crimes soars by 26% with devastating impacts on natural world
Environmental crime is now the world’s fourth biggest crime and is a growing threat to security and natural resources, say UN and Interpol
The value of the black market industry behind crimes such as ivory smuggling, illegal logging and toxic waste dumping has jumped by 26% since 2014 to between $91bn (£62bn) and $258bn, according to an assessment by the UN and Interpol.
Environmental crime is now the world’s fourth largest illicit enterprise after drug smuggling, counterfeiting and human trafficking and has outstripped the illegal trade in small arms.
Continue reading...EU dilutes proposal to halve air pollution deaths after UK lobbying
If implemented, weakened proposal means 14,000 people could die prematurely across Europe each year from 2030
EU states have agreed to water down a proposed law aimed at halving the number of deaths from air pollution within 15 years, after intense lobbying from the UK that cross-party MEPs have condemned as “appalling”.
Some 14,000 people will die prematurely every year across Europe from 2030 as a result, if the weakened proposal is implemented, according to figures cited by the environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella.
Continue reading...Flooding threat: worried Parisians watch Seine level rise – video
Residents voice their fears as the water level of the Seine river in Paris continues to rise. Officials forecast the Seine could peak at 6.5 metres, its highest level for more than 30 years in central Paris, stressing this is still well below the level at which it would threaten residents and businesses. Photograph: Philippe Wojazer/Reuters
- Europe floods: Seine could peak at 6.5 metres as Louvre closes doors
- Sinkholes and landslides follow flooding in France and Germany – video
Wildlife on your doorstep: June
We’re halfway through the year with the month of June and we’d like to see your photos of the June wildlife near you
The southern hemisphere approaches winter during the month of June while the northern hemisphere basks in warm, sunny weather. So what sort of wildlife will we all discover on our doorsteps? We’d like to see your photos of the June wildlife near you.
Share your photos and videos with us and we’ll feature our favourites on the Guardian site.
Continue reading...Hopping hares and playful lambs: readers' May wildlife pictures
We asked you to share your May pictures of the wildlife around the world wherever you are. Here’s a selection of our favourites
• You can add your June wildlife photographs by clicking on the ‘Contribute’ button below
The week in wildlife – in pictures
Fighting snakes, a rare sand cat family and Belgium’s newborn giant panda are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...Hubble clocks faster cosmic expansion
Philadelphia water department faces class action lawsuit over water testing
City is under increasing pressure to change test methods that scientists said may underestimate the amount of lead found in water after a Guardian investigation
The Philadelphia water department, accused by some experts of having water testing “worse than Flint”, is facing a class action lawsuit and a lead-testing campaign mounted by citizens concerned about water quality.
On Thursday, hours after the Guardian published an investigation into the water-testing practices of 33 cities east of the Mississippi River, the Hagens Berman law firm announced a class action lawsuit against Philadelphia, based in part on the city’s outdated test practices.
Continue reading...Getting 'High on Life' lands Canadian men in hot water for Yellowstone stunt
Four men face charges over images on social media showing them going off trail in fragile area of park, after earlier wake-boarding incident at Bonneville Salt Flats
Authorities in Yellowstone national park are urging a group of Canadian men accused of tramping off trail and dabbing in a delicate hot spring to turn themselves in, after images were posted on social media of their reported antics there and across a string of American “national treasures”.
Federal warrants have been issued in Wyoming for the arrest of the four friends, who market themselves under variations of their Vancouver-based clothing and entertainment brand High on Life.
Continue reading...From floods to forest fires: a warming planet – in pictures
Droughts, floods, forest fires and melting poles – climate change is impacting Earth like never before. From the Australia to Greenland, Ashley Cooper’s work spans 13 years and over 30 countries. This selection, taken from his new book, shows a changing landscape, scarred by pollution and natural disasters – but there is hope too, with the steady rise of renewable energy
Continue reading...'Lost city' was created by nature
Snails decide using 'two brain cells'
Flat lens promises revolution in optics
Agencies say 22% of Barrier Reef coral is dead, correcting 'misinterpretation'
Two government agencies at odds with colleagues on bleaching taskforce over extent of reef damage, even though figures are broadly similar
Almost a quarter of the coral on the Great Barrier Reef is now dead, according to two government agencies, with the previously pristine remote northern sections worst affected.
The data from in-water surveys, released on Friday afternoon, was from the two agencies that were part of the national coral bleaching taskforce.
Continue reading...EcoCheck: Perth's Banksia woodlands are in the path of the sprawling city
Our EcoCheck series takes the pulse of some of Australia’s most important ecosystems to find out if they’re in good health or on the wane.
Western Australia’s iconic Banksia woodlands are the predominant ecosystem along the Swan Coastal Plain – part of the southwest Australian global biodiversity hotspot, a region internationally recognised for its huge diversity of flowers and other wildlife.
The Swan Coastal Plain, home to Banksia woodlands, and most of Western Australia’s humans.
Hesperian/IBRA/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
With more than 2,100 plant species, 2,250 invertebrates and 256 vertebrates, these woodlands are truly unique. However, they share this coastal plain with Perth, one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. Staggeringly, the Perth-Mandurah urban corridor is larger than the official city boundaries of Los Angeles and Tokyo put together (although, in fairness, those cities' satellite regions have their share of urban sprawl too).
Greater Perth’s population has crept past 2 million, across an area that extends 123km along the coast and about 30km inland. By 2050, Perth’s population is projected to reach 3.5 million and to stretch more than 240km along the coast.
While there have been some efforts to look at how to contain the sprawl, new land is still being released for development.
Banksia woodlands are under threatBanksia woodlands are disappearing at an alarming rate. The woodlands have essentially been lost from the central part of their range (the Perth metropolitan area), leaving behind a scattering of suburban remnants.
These remnants, which include the 267 hectares of bushland in Perth’s iconic Kings Park, are under stress from other threats too, including inappropriate fire regimes, invasive species and climate change. Over the past 60 years these factors have contributed to a loss of many mature Banksia trees.
Around 80% of the woodland plants depend on pollinators such as native insects, birds, and mammals like Western Australia’s unique Honey Possum. Therefore, it is critical to maintain a connected network of woodland remnants across the metropolitan region, so that these pollinators can move freely throughout the habitat. It is not enough simply to conserve isolated patches such as Kings Park.
The federal government is assessing whether to add these Banksia woodlands to its list of threatened ecological communities, which would pave the way for a co-ordinated program to help protect them.
This is timely, coming in the face of the WA government’s proposed Perth-Peel Green Growth Plan, which will result in the loss of a further 9,800ha of Banksia woodlands (about 13,611 soccer fields, or 24.5 times the total area of Kings Park) and a further decline in numbers of the endangered Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo.
A way forward?The good news is that Banksia woodlands can be successfully restored, and indeed some small pockets have been already. Roughly 70% of species returned to a restored site previously used for collecting construction sand.
However, Banksia trees take decades to reach maturity, making restoration a slow process, not to mention an expensive one. The cost of restoring cleared land has previously been estimated at A$30,000 per hectare, and Banksia attenuata seed alone can cost A$220 per 1,000 seeds.
The Perth-Peel plan would include the creation of 170,000ha of woodland reserves as mitigation for development. However, this is not a net gain, as these areas already exist. Some revegetation is planned, but as we have seen above, this is expensive and not always successful.
Perth has one of the lowest population densities in the world, with an average of just ten homes per hectare. Infill development has been proposed as an antidote to urban sprawl, but care needs to be taken that this infill does not fragment urban woodlands still further.
For a city of 2 million, Perth is still pretty flat.
Bev Sykes/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY
Smarter planning
We cannot undo past developments. However, we should learn from them and reduce our future impact. This means using the best available restoration science and translating it into smarter planning and development to preserve existing woodlands on the Swan Coastal Plain, rather than trying to fix or offset the losses.
We need to know how changes in climate, particularly rainfall, will impact on Banksia woodlands. But, above all, the issue needs to be communicated beyond the scientific community. The public should be aware of the environmental and social benefits of conserving and restoring Banksia woodlands, from cooling our city streets to preserving WA’s beloved black cockatoos.
Finding the balance between urban sprawl and healthy woodlands will require collaboration between ecologists, policy scientists, urban planners, developers and local councils. Only with smarter development planning will we secure the successful management and future of the Banksia woodlands that once covered the Swan Coastal Plain.
Are you a researcher who studies an iconic Australian ecosystem and would like to give it an EcoCheck? Get in touch.
Alison Ritchie receives research funding from Urban Resources. She is Honorary Secretary of the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA).
Elizabeth Sinclair receives funding from Australian Research Council.
Jason Stevens receives funding from the Western Australian State Government, Australian Research Council.
Lucy Commander receives funding from Sinosteel Midwest Corporation. She is a board member of the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA).
Robert Davis has previously received funding from Perth Region NRM and the Department of Parks and Wildlife to study Banksia woodland birds. He is an immediate past director of Birdlife Australia.
William Fowler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
Mountain trek to raise charity cash
Pennines’ becks and limestone scars form backdrop for Mallerstang Yomp challenge
The wind brings tears to the eyes as I make my cautious way to the brink of Hell Gill, the limestone chasm that once marked the boundary between Yorkshire and old Westmorland. Below, the infant river Eden, at this point called Hell Gill Beck, races north en route for Carlisle and the Solway Firth.
It was here, according to legend, that the 18th-century highwayman Dick Turpin eluded his pursuers by spurring his horse, Black Bess, into a flying leap across the 5ft gap.
Continue reading...Astronomers probe below Jupiter's clouds
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