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As part of a $48 million project, Ethtec aims to construct a $30 million purpose built pilot-scale facility based in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

Electric lorries | Mickey Rooney as Mr Yunioshi | Uber benchmark | Pre-latte days | Mispronouncing Italian | Theresa May’s church visits

Despite what Elon Musk says (Keep on trucking: a swipe at rail as Tesla unveils electric lorry, 18 November), there is still a crucial role for rail freight in transporting long-distance consumer and bulk traffic in a safer low-carbon way that reduces road congestion and road damage. Also, 136 lorry platoons already exist and are called freight trains. So, during road safety week (20-26 November) we should remember that last year heavy goods vehicles were almost seven times more likely than cars to be involved in fatal crashes on local roads.
Philippa Edmunds
Freight on rail manager, Campaign for Better Transport

• One of my best-loved films, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, is now unwatchable by me for the stereotypical portrayal of Mr Yunioshi by Mickey Rooney (I like Apu from the Simpsons. But I can see the harm in stereotypes, 18 November). My father’s critical perspective was influenced by the heroine being a call girl, but then he’d been through a war against, among others, the Japanese.
Jenny Powell
Storrington, Sussex

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A recent report claims that Australia's energy can reliably come from 50% renewable sources by 2030. But arguing over renewable levels distracts from a paucity of policy. David Blowers, Energy Fellow, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The spectacular albatrosses featured in the BBC's Blue Planet series have seen a big slump in numbers.

An asteroid that visited our Solar System from interstellar space is one of the most elongated celestial bodies known to science.

Pipeline plan clears last major regulatory hurdle after vote in Nebraska, but legal challenges and protest likely to follow

A panel of Nebraska regulators have voted narrowly in favor of allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to follow its proposed path through the state, removing the last major regulatory hurdle for the controversial project.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission voted 3-2 to approve a permit for the pipeline, which will stretch for 1,200 miles and carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil a day. The vote saw one of the four Republicans on the commission, Mary Ridder, join with the Democrat, Crystal Rhoades, in opposing the permit.

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E-bikes are well-established in some EU countries, but how about the UK? Old-school cyclist Peter Kimpton tries a new model to see if he’d be tempted to swap

“E-bikes are fantastic. I use them all the time. You can take the kids up mountains. You can arrive in your good clothes at a meeting. It’s so easy.” Who said this?

Surprisingly, it was none other than Fabian Cancellara, perhaps the greatest ever road time-trial rider. He made similar remarks during a Q&A at the recent Rouleur Classic, an event for road bike and race purists, causing good-humoured outrage. But if even the great Cancellara can ride an e-bike, so will I.

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Simon Reinhard mastered the Method of Loci to become a European memory champion.

The melting glacier contributing most to sea-level rise currently may be more resilient than previously recognised.

After months of intense hurricanes, heat waves, and droughts, a survey finds a record number of Americans worried about climate change

The latest climate change survey from Yale and George Mason Universities is out, and it shows that Americans are still poorly-informed about the causes of global warming. Only 54% understand that it’s mostly human-caused, while 33% incorrectly believe global warming is due mainly to natural factors.

In fact, a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports developed a real-time global warming index. It shows that humans are responsible for 1°C global surface warming over the past 150 years – approximately 100% of the warming we’ve observed. Lead author Karsten Haustein explained their new index and study in a blog post.

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Nebraska regulators will decide Monday on the last major regulatory hurdle facing the project. Here’s what you need to know

Nebraska regulators are expected to decide on Monday whether to approve or deny an in-state route for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. It’s the last major regulatory hurdle facing project operator TransCanada Corp.

The Nebraska public service commission’s ruling is on the Nebraska route TransCanada has proposed to complete the $8bn,179-mile pipeline to deliver oil from Alberta, Canada, to Texas Gulf coast refineries. The proposed Keystone XL route would cross parts of Montana, South Dakota and most of Nebraska to Steele City, Nebraska.

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Frydenberg defends lack of solar panels, saying Cory Bernardi has them, and didn't sign up for Paris climate target. Say what?

Simon Hackett puts his name down for a new Tesla Roadster, saying it will prove supremacy of electric driven transport over burning fossil fuels. And prove Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson wrong.

With global e-waste projected to hit 50m tonnes next year, consumers need to put pressure on technology firms to make their products more repairable

Tech powers many things, including cognitive dissonance. A few years ago I was travelling through Agbogbloshie, the commercial district in Accra, known as a graveyard for electronic waste, a hotspot for digital dumping. I tutted and shook my head in sorrow as I surveyed the charred keyboards and plumes of toxic computer smoke wafting across the landscape. My Ghanaian colleague looked with some amusement at the tech spilling out of my handbag. My laptop, phone, iPad – where did I think they might end up?

Despite my relatively puritanical approach to upgrades (I can remember ALL my phones), there’s a good chance that those items ended up back there or somewhere similar. According to 2011 figures from the B&FT (Business and Financial Times, Ghana’s biggest business newspaper), the country took in 17,765 tonnes of UK e-waste that year, nearly 50% of all of the waste electronics that were dumped there. For the UK’s discarded electronic goods, Ghana is still likely to be a major destination. Others include China, India and Nigeria. Out of all the electronic waste we send for recycling, 80% ends up being shipped (some legally, and some not) to emerging and developing countries. China is tightening up. A recent change in the law reclassified circuit boards as “hazardous” waste, putting some Chinese e-waste reprocessors out of business. It was a digital version of the butterfly effect: causing more e-waste to be dumped on developing countries to be processed illegally.

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Tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean each year, but a switch away from petroleum-based products to bio-derived and degradable composites could lessen marine pollution. Kim Pickering, Professor of materials science and engineering, University of Waikato Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Failure of another coal power unit in Victoria's Latrobe Valley has prompted the market operator to warn of supply shortages – and it's not even summer yet.

Schott scolds government for "spitting the dummy" on Clean Energy Target, but defends design of NEG, saying it clear that more renewables have weakened energy system.

If the Corvette is the halo car for Chevrolet and General Motors, the new Roadster will be the halo car for Tesla.

Federal Government is something of a lame duck and, in our view, lacks moral authority in the area of energy policy.

In partnership with BirdLife Australia, Guardian Australia has launched its annual Australian bird of the year poll to ask readers to nominate their favourite bird and encourage others to do the same

This week Guardian Australia and BirdLife Australia are asking readers to cast their vote on their favourite native bird. From the gregarious sulphur-crested cockatoo to the ubiquitous bright lorikeet, it’s time to recognise our country’s wealth of amazing native birds.

The poll aims to celebrate the uniqueness of Australian birdlife and raise awareness of the threats facing many of the birds on the list, including climate change, habitat loss, land-clearing and feral animal predators.

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