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Tories push for climate change action abroad but back fossil fuels at home

The Guardian - Fri, 2015-11-13 22:59

Foreign secretary Philip Hammond tells US free-marketeers that climate action boosts economies, while at home George Osborne undermines the green economy

Perhaps it’s being forced to think about global matters and the dangers they pose, but the UK’s foreign secretary Philip Hammond, like his Conservative predecessor, both understands the risks of climate change and the urgent need to act.

In a powerful speechthis week, he said: “Taking action to combat climate change is the right thing to do - the conservative thing to do.” Hammond had deliberately picked a tough crowd: the American Enterprise Institute, the free-marketeers who have for years have turned ExxonMobil and Koch dollars into climate change denial.

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World’s largest ocean cleanup operation one step closer to launch

The Guardian - Fri, 2015-11-13 21:52

Real life trials of a groundbreaking array designed to clean up the vast plastic island in the Pacific are due to begin next year after successful tests of a prototype in the Netherlands

A crowdfunded 100km-long boom to clean up a vast expanse of plastic rubbish in the Pacific is one step closer to reality after successful tests of a scaled-down prototype in the Netherlands last week.

Further trials off the Dutch and Japanese coasts are now slated to begin in the new year. If they are successful, the world’s largest ever ocean cleanup operation will go live in 2020, using a gigantic V-shaped array, the like of which has never been seen before.

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Collapsing Greenland glacier could raise sea levels by half a metre, say scientists

The Guardian - Fri, 2015-11-13 05:00

Huge Zachariae Isstrom glacier has begun to break up, starting a rapid retreat that could continue to raise sea levels for decades to come

A major glacier in Greenland that holds enough water to raise global sea levels by half a metre has begun to crumble into the North Atlantic Ocean, scientists say.

The huge Zachariae Isstrom glacier in northeast Greenland started to melt rapidly in 2012 and is now breaking up into large icebergs where the glacier meets the sea, monitoring has revealed.

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Toothless Environment Agency is allowing the living world to be wrecked with impunity | George Monbiot

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-11-12 22:38

The farcical investigation of the pollution case I exposed in a Devon river highlights how budget cuts have left the agency incapable of enforcement

It could scarcely have been a starker case. The river I came across in Devon six weeks ago, and described in the Guardian, was so polluted that I could smell it from 50 metres away. Farm slurry pouring into the water, from a pipe that I traced back to a dairy farm, had wiped out almost all the life in the stretch of River Culm I explored.

All that now grew on the riverbed were long, feathery growths of sewage fungus. An expert on freshwater pollution I consulted told me that the extent of these growths showed the poisoning of the river was “chronic and severe”.

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Group test: children's bikes from Islabike, Frog, Hoy and Halfords

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-11-12 17:30

They’re cleverly designed for tiny riders. But our four- to six-year-old testers were also interested in doing skids and playing with toy traffic cones

Bike companies spend months finessing the details of their kids’ models – the scaled-down brake levers, mini cranks, a child-friendly low centre of gravity. And what are the children most impressed by? A set of toy plastic cones.

That, along with the apparently great significance of rear-wheel skids to the lives of six-year-olds, was among the lessons learned from a fun if exhausting morning trying out children’s bikes with a collection of fun-sized testers.

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Britain 'must abandon Churchillian rhetoric' in face of rising seas

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-11-12 17:01

National Trust says central and local governments should plan ahead for increasing coastal erosion rather than talk of ‘holding the line’

Britain must abandon “Churchillian rhetoric” and claims it can “hold the line” against rising seas, and instead plan ahead for increasing coastal erosion, according to the National Trust.

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UK becomes only G7 country to increase fossil fuel subsidies

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-11-12 16:30

Tory government is giving billions in ever increasing handouts to oil and gas majors at the same time as cutting support for clean energy, report reveals

The UK is alone among G7 nations in dramatically increasing its fossil fuel subsidies, despite an earlier pledge to phase them out, a new report has found.

The revelation will embarrass ministers who want to take a leading role at a crunch UN climate change summit in Paris in December, but who have been sharply cutting support for green energy at home.

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How many cells in a person?

ABC Science - Tue, 2015-11-10 09:28
GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: It's a surprisingly hard question to answer, but Dr Karl has tracked down a reasonable estimate of the number of cells in the human body.

Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline and hails US as leader on climate change

The Guardian - Sat, 2015-11-07 05:06

President ends years of political drama and hands environmentalists a big victory with decision to turn down proposal to build 1,700-mile pipeline through US

Barack Obama ended seven years of high-wire political drama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, saying the decision reflected America’s determination to be a global leader in the fight against climate change.

The move, less than four weeks before more than 190 countries gather in Paris to try to reach a global deal to reduce carbon pollution, reinforces Obama’s commitment to making climate change the domestic and international legacy of his second term in the White House – even in the face of Republican hostility.

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Conservation Management Zones of Australia dataset now available

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2015-11-06 15:43
Conservation Management Zones of Australia dataset now available as open data and web services
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Three species of bird retain current listing status on the list of threatened species under the EPBC Act after assessment

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2015-11-06 13:59
The Minister has agreed that Turnix melanogaster (black-breasted button-quail), Erythrotriorchis radiatus (red goshawk), Geophaps scripta scripta (squatter pigeon (southern)) that these species should retain their current listing status effective 27 October 2015.
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Purple-crowned fairy-wren (western) transferred categories on the list of threatened species under the EPBC Act

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2015-11-06 13:53
The Minister has approved the transfer of Malurus coronatus coronatus (purple-crowned fairy-wren (western)) from the Vulnerable category to the Endangered category effective 31 October 2015.
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Three birds added to the list of threatened species under the EPBC Act

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2015-11-06 09:51
The Minister has approved the addition of Probosciger aterrimus macgillivrayi (palm cockatoo (Australian), Platycercus caledonicus brownii (green rosella), Strepera fuliginosa colei (black currawong (King Island)) to the Vulnerable category effective 31 October 2015.
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Scientists warned the President about global warming 50 years ago today | Dana Nuccitelli

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-11-05 21:00

On 5 November 1965 climate scientists summarized the risks associated with rising carbon pollution in a report for Lyndon Baines Johnson

Fifty years ago today, as the American Association for the Advancement of Science highlighted, US president Lyndon Johnson’s science advisory committee sent him a report entitled Restoring the Quality of Our Environment. The introduction to the report noted:

Pollutants have altered on a global scale the carbon dioxide content of the air and the lead concentrations in ocean waters and human populations.

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Chairs' Update 3 November 2015 | Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2015-11-05 12:01
Find out the latest updates on the Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review.
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Sydney Chapter SENG Newsletter - November 2015

Newsletters Sydney - Wed, 2015-11-04 10:40
Sydney Chapter SENG Newsletter - November 2015
Categories: Newsletters Sydney

Half of world's rare antelope population died within weeks

The Guardian - Wed, 2015-11-04 02:06

Scientists are struggling to explain the mass die-off of at least 150,000 endangered saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan earlier this year

More than half of the world’s population of an endangered antelope died within two weeks earlier this year, in a phenomenon that scientists are unable to explain.

Related: Kazakhstan's mass antelope deaths mystify conservationists

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Delhi's air pollution is causing a health crisis. So, what can be done?

The Guardian - Tue, 2015-11-03 19:00

The city’s toxic air has been linked to allergies, respiratory conditions, birth malformations and increasing incidence of cancers. But as a recent car-free experiment showed, action to cut pollution can be effective

For a few hours one morning two weeks ago, private cars were banned from driving into the heart of old Delhi. It was hard to tell at the messy road junction in front of the historic Red Fort and the shopping street of Chandni Chowk, though, which was still crammed with auto-rickshaws and buses barrelling along the roads with seemingly little regard for any traffic rules.

But Delhi’s so-called “car-free day” experiment was nevertheless a success: scientists monitoring the air here, routinely one of Delhi’s most polluted areas, found a dramatic 60% drop in the amount of dangerous pollutants – the tiniest particles that come out of traffic exhausts and which can exacerbate health problems such as asthma, heart disease and stroke – compared to the previous day.

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Victorian PQ Aquatics Fishery - application 2015

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2015-11-03 15:49
Application on ecological sustainability - public comments open from 5 November 2015 until 4 December 2015
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Commonwealth On-Farm Further Irrigation Efficiency Program

Department of the Environment - Tue, 2015-11-03 13:51
The Australian Government is establishing a new program to assist irrigators modernise their on-farm irrigation infrastructure and return the resulting water savings to the environment. Public comments on program design are open until 11 December.
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