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Country diary: bats hunt by the light of the silvery harvest moon
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire Seen through the shaggy boughs of an old larch, the full moon had the strange allure that moths and wanderers know
A streetlight in the lane enamelled hollies with a sodium glow and sucked the colour from the leaves of other trees. The church bell rang eight or maybe nine; there was a soughing through the limes.
Suddenly, I felt a tiny sonic boom and the draught of a bat’s wing close to my ear. It was like a tap on the shoulder, not a shock so much as a greeting but, all the same, a jolting from thoughts about one world into another, where unseen lives almost touch.
Continue reading...Sewage plants are leaking millions of tiny plastic beads into Britain's seas
The plastic beads used for filtering sewage are hard to spot and pose a risk to wildlife, according to a new report
Sewage plants are contributing to plastic pollution in the oceans with millions of tiny beads spilling into the seas around the UK, according to a new report.
Dozens of UK wastewater treatment plants use tiny plastic pellets, known as Bio-Beads, to filter chemical and organic contaminants from sewage, according to a study from the Cornish Plastic Pollution Coalition (CPPC).
Continue reading...Darius Salgo joins Wattwatchers team to drive business growth
Telstra unveils its big battery – it’s nearly 10 times bigger than Tesla’s
SolarEdge presenting large-capacity commercial inverters at Australia’s All Energy
World will need 'carbon sucking' technology by 2030s, scientists warn
New methods to capture and store emissions, such as planting more forests and pumping carbon underground, are currently costly and need testing
As efforts to cut planet-warming emissions fall short, large-scale projects to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere will be needed by the 2030s to hold the line against climate change, scientists have said.
Many new technologies that aim to capture and store carbon emissions, thereby delivering “negative emissions”, are costly, controversial and in the early phase of testing.
Continue reading...600MW pumped hydro project proposed for northern NSW
Netherlands to close all coal-fired generation by 2030
Adani signs PPA for Rugby Run solar plant, but won’t say with who
'Climate change is real': energy minister hits out at Tony Abbott
Josh Frydenberg brings up former PM’s own record in response to Liberal colleague’s provocative speech to a group of climate-change sceptics
The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has slapped down Tony Abbott and other conservative rebels, declaring that climate change is real and that was why Abbott agreed to join the Paris international climate agreement when he was prime minister.
Asked about Abbott’s provocative speech to a group of climate-change sceptics in London questioning the science of climate change – an outing that has been characterised by Labor as “loopy” – Frydenberg brought up Abbott’s own record in the top job.
Continue reading...Mass extinctions 'offer cautionary tale'
Fatbergs: 90% of London restaurants are contributing to problem
Oil and food scraps are finding their way into pipes and drains as majority of eateries have no grease traps
The vast majority of London restaurants and takeaways are responsible for feeding the fatbergs that are choking the capital’s sewers, according to survey findings that Thames Water called “staggering”.
Ninety per cent of eateries in London are contributing to the problem by failing to install grease traps, the report found. As a result, grease, oil and food scraps washed off plates, utensils and saucepans are finding their way into pipes and drains.
Continue reading...Extending Liddell could be more expensive than solar plus storage
Leadbeater's Possum population crashes by two thirds in past 20 years: report
Get smart: AEMO unveils 200MW “virtual power plant”
Money can't buy me love, but you can put a price on a tree
The need to tackle London’s toxic air | Letters
It is of real concern to read that nearly 95% of London’s population live in areas exceeding WHO limits for particulate matter (Report, 5 October). Inner London’s location, its dense road network and high buildings mean that it suffers from poorer air quality than many parts of the country. We are assisting the mayor of London by developing a low emission neighbourhood, leading a London-wide clampdown on idling engines, and banning diesel from our own fleet. We have created a City Air App, which gives low pollution travel routes to over 20,000 Londoners and use our planning powers to ensure new buildings are energy efficient and low emission.
This is having a positive effect and we welcome the mayor’s decision that from 1 January 2018 all newly registered taxis are zero-emissions capable. But more needs to be done. We want to see existing diesel private hire vehicles removed from fleets as soon as possible to protect the public from exposure to toxic diesel emissions – with current licences phased out by 2020.
Jeremy Simons
Chairman of the environment committee, City of London Corporation
Why British scientists are watching Iceland's volcanoes
Fightback begins over Trump's 'illegal and irresponsible' clean power repeal
- NY attorney general to sue administration for scrapping Clean Power Plan
- Major companies including Apple and Google support Obama-era initiative
The US is set for a fresh battle over climate change after the Trump administration moved to tear up the country’s primary policy to lower emissions and stave off dangerous global warming.
Related: 'The war on coal is over': EPA boss to roll back Obama's clean power rules
Continue reading...Tony Abbott dares us to reject evidence on climate, but reveals a coward | Graham Readfearn
The former Australian prime minister’s misleading speech to a London thinktank was full of climate denial mythology
Tony Abbott titled his London speech on climate change “Daring to Doubt” – a challenge, if you will, to reject mountains of evidence and instead lick your fingers and shove them into the plug socket of denial.
Go on, I dare you.
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