Feed aggregator

Ancient underwater remains thought to be a "long lost city" are in fact the result of a naturally occurring phenomenon, researchers find.

Snails use two brain cells to make "complex decisions", a team of scientists finds.

A flat lens made of paint whitener on a sliver of glass could revolutionise optics, its US inventors say.

Two government agencies at odds with colleagues on bleaching taskforce over extent of reef damage, even though figures are broadly similar

• Share your pictures and stories of climate change in Australia
  

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...

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 threat

Banksia 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.

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...

US astronomers have managed to peer deep into the atmosphere of Jupiter using a radio telescope here on Earth.

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo, speaking on Q&A. Q&A

The Conversation is fact-checking claims made on Q&A, broadcast Mondays on the ABC at 9.35pm. Thank you to everyone who sent us quotes for checking via Twitter using hashtags #FactCheck and #QandA, on Facebook or by email.

Excerpt from Q&A, May 30, 2016.

Global demand for coal is still going through the roof. – Trade Minister Steven Ciobo, speaking on Q&A, May 30, 2016.

Trade Minister Steve Ciobo told the Q&A audience that global demand for coal is still going through the roof. (Watch from 2:38 in the clip above.) Is that correct?

Checking the source

When asked for a source to support his statement, a spokesman for Steven Ciobo said the minister had addressed the issue in a tweet sent the day after the Q&A program aired.

Ciobo’s tweet refers to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2014 Medium-Term Coal Market Report.

This report said:

In 2013, coal added more primary energy than any other fuel and was the fastest-growing fossil fuel. 2013 coal demand grew 2.4% on a tonnage basis, more than oil and gas, enhancing its position as the second-largest primary energy source and closing the gap with oil.

The report, however, goes on to note that coal prices in 2014 were low due to significant global oversupply, saying that:

In 2014, coal oversupply persists and very low coal prices continued to dominate. For a few years, the focus of coal producers was to expand production. New capacity was constantly added and demand led by China consumed every additional tonne. However, since 2011, oversupply and low prices have dominated.

Fast-forward one year, and the IEA’s 2015 Medium-Term Coal Market Report says that global coal demand growth has “halted”:

For the first time since the 1990s, global coal demand growth halted in 2014. This was the result of a combination of some structural and temporal factors, mostly in China, where half of global coal is used… Given the economic rebalancing in China and ongoing structural decline in OECD countries, even with the continuation of growth in India and ASEAN countries, a downward trend in global coal consumption in 2015 is likely.

Declining coal consumption in China is reducing global demand

The decrease in coal consumption in China was effectively an overhang from the global financial crisis (GFC).

During the GFC, China sought to avoid economic decline by a significant domestic stimulus program.

The stimulus program bolstered investment in construction and manufacturing in the years following, but is now petering out. Reports point to a worsening situation in 2015, as coal imports declined sharply from 2014.

Further evidence of declining global coal demand is the fall in coal prices out of Newcastle.

A good indication of coal demand is the share prices for coal miners. In the US and in Australia, coal mining companies’ share prices are not showing evidence of high expectations of growth in demand.

Author provided. Can India fill the gap?

The IEA’s 2015 Medium-Term Coal Market Report noted that India is the only major economy with strong coal growth.

However, the report found that:

India is not the new China. As forecast in former editions of this report, India will become the second-largest coal consumer in the world, bypassing the United States, and the largest importer of thermal coal… [However], growth in India and ASEAN countries will not compensate for the new trajectory of Chinese coal demand.

The situation in India is fluid. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reported to be a champion of solar energy and the country is pursuing significant investment in solar (as well as coal).

India’s Energy Minister Piyush Goyal is committed to eliminate costly coal imports of thermal coal for use in electricity generation.

IEA modelling gives clues about future global coal demand

The IEA makes projections into the future in a report called the World Energy Outlook.

Last year’s projections provided three scenarios: a current policies scenario, a new policies scenario (also known as the medium scenario) and a 450 scenario.

The 450 scenario models energy demand based on policies required to cap the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to 450 ppm (parts per million). That’s the level needed to stand a chance of keeping global warming to 2°C.

The IEA’s new policies (or “medium”) scenario and subsequent modelling of global leaders' commitments to carbon reduction assume that “climate ambition is not raised progressively” and warming will most likely be in the 2.7 to 3.5 degree range.

Author provided.

Global leaders reaffirmed at the Paris Climate Conference the goal of limiting global temperature increase well below 2°C.

On that basis, the IEA’s 450 scenario may give us a clue about future energy demand in a world committed to avoiding dangerous climate change.

The IEA’s 450 scenario shows a very significant decline in consumption of coal in the decades ahead. That also calls into question the minister’s claim that coal demand is still going through the roof.

Verdict

Steven Ciobo’s statement that global coal demand is “going through the roof” is inaccurate.

Review

The FactCheck is correct, but the author could place more emphasis on the central scenario from the International Energy Agency, rather than its 450 scenario.

The latest predictions for the future of coal demand from the International Energy Agency have highlighted that the massive growth in demand for coal over the past 15 years will not continue, and the fuel faces more uncertain times.

Consumption of coal across OECD countries is predicted to fall 40% by 2040. Yet the central scenario of the IEA still has coal meeting 10% of future increases in energy needs to 2040.

This is driven in particular by Southeast Asia, where primary energy demand for coal is predicted to triple between 2020 and 2040.

This means that the most likely IEA scenario is that global consumption of coal will continue to increase but at a much slower rate than before, noting that there is still uncertainty about how China’s and India’s consumption may change over time. – John Rolfe

Have you ever seen a “fact” worth checking? The Conversation’s FactCheck asks academic experts to test claims and see how true they are. We then ask a second academic to review an anonymous copy of the article. You can request a check at checkit@theconversation.edu.au. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible.

John Rolfe receives funding from the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) for a research project on mine closures and land use change back to agriculture.

Lynette Molyneaux 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.

Huge revenues generated by the Camisea project in Peru’s Amazon, but locals suffer from health epidemics and lack of clean water

Every year a group of experts called the South Peru Panel issues a report on the country’s largest ever energy development which extracts natural gas and natural gas liquids from the Amazon and pipes them all the way across the Andes to Peru’s Pacific coast. The conclusions of its latest report? “Very positive macroeconomic benefits” and “without precedent in Peru’s modern economic history”, but pathetic, if not disastrous, for the indigenous people living near where the gas is extracted.

The South Peru Panel was established in 2009 as a condition of a US$458.6 million loan by the Export-Import Bank of the United States to the Peru Liquified Natural Gas Project (Peru LNG), run by US company Hunt Oil, to build a 408 km pipeline, a gas liquefaction plant on the coast, and a marine terminal. The total cost is reported to have been almost US$4 billion - making it at the time the largest foreign direct investment in Peru’s history, according to the Panel, and the first and to date only LNG export project in Latin America.

Continue reading...

HUBBLE CONSTANT: The universe is expanding faster than expected and scientists speculate the finding may be explained by a mysterious force called dark radiation.

GAS GIANT: Jupiter's famous red spot, and other stormy surface features extend 30 to 100 kilometres below the enigmatic surface of the gas giant, a new study has found.

Young fish become hooked on eating plastic in the seas in the same way that teenagers prefer unhealthy fast food, researchers say.

Kent police warn drivers in Tunbridge Wells to check brakes before travelling after six incidents since blamed on fox cubs chewing through cables

Drivers in Tunbridge Wells have been left outraged after hungry foxes apparently chewed through the brake cables of several cars. Kent police have now warned drivers to check their brakes before setting off on journeys.

Officers called on wildlife expert John Bryant to determine whether there was an explanation other than deliberate damage to six vehicles in the second half of May. He concluded that a family of teenage fox cubs, rather than a human vandal, had gnawed through the brake cables.

Continue reading...

There are two butterfly summers underway in Britain right now. If you have the good fortune to be a silver-studded blue or a large skipper in the West Country you are leaping out of your chrysalis and dancing in the sunshine.

If you were unlucky enough to be an egg laid in eastern England you are still stuck in the pupal stage, perhaps so chilled and damp you will never take to the skies.

Continue reading...

You know that feeling when you open the fridge and are met with something “on the nose”. We all know what food waste looks and smells like.

But food waste stinks in more ways than one. It is expensive, costing the average household over A$2,200 a year, and it undermines the resilience and sustainability of our food supply.

A new report from our Foodprint Melbourne Project has estimated the amount of food that is wasted in feeding Melbourne. We found that feeding Melbourne generates more than 900,000 tonnes of edible food waste every year, or over 200 kg per person.

This is enough to feed more than 2 million people for a year*.

Food waste occurs at different stages for each food type. Foodprint Melbourne Undermining sustainability

Growing this wasted food uses 180 gigalitres of water each year, or 113 litres per person per day. This is equivalent to running your shower for an extra 10 minutes a day.

This wasted food also uses around 3.6 million hectares of land – around 41 ha per person, or more than 20 times the area of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

And this wasted food is responsible for around 2.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, 60% of which is generated by food waste rotting in landfill, and the rest in producing the wasted food.

This uneaten food is not only a source of unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. It represents a waste of natural resources that are in increasingly limited supply.

Australia is a water-scarce region that is likely to become drier due to climate change, while only 6% of Australia’s land is suitable for growing crops.

With the associated waste of natural resources, high levels of food waste add to the challenge of producing sufficient food to feed a growing population.

Reducing food waste

There are many ways to reduce food waste at home. These include making meal plans, sharing leftover food with friends or neighbours, checking the fridge before going shopping and storing food correctly.

The Cloud-Freezer app can help you to keep track of what’s in your freezer and fridge. Worm farms, bokashi bins and other forms of composting are also great ways to divert food waste from landfill.

While we can all take steps to reduce food waste at home, we need to look at the bigger picture. Our research shows that more than 60% of food waste is generated before food reaches your fridge or freezer.

Strict standards defining the shape, size and colour of fresh fruit and vegetables in supermarkets can mean that a significant proportion of a crop never leaves the farm.

Low prices for second-grade produce can make it financially unviable for farmers to pick, pack and ship imperfect produce. Pressure to keep supermarket shelves full for appearance’s sake, losses during food processing and storage problems also lead to food being wasted.

Initiatives that aim to make more imperfect fruit and vegetables available, such as Woolworth’s Odd Bunch campaign, go some way to reducing this problem, but more needs to be done.

Our research estimates that if food waste was halved across the food supply chain, Melbourne could save 1.8 million hectares of land, 90 million litres of water and avoid 1.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year.

We need to halve food waste

In recognition of the significant challenge that food waste represents to sustainable food systems, the new Sustainable Development Goals set a target to halve the global food waste per person that is generated by retailers and consumers by 2030.

The United States government has also set a national target to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030. It has established a cross-sector partnership of stakeholders across the food system to tackle the problem.

The UK government has been an early mover in taking action to tackle food waste. In 2007, it launched the WRAP Love Food Hate Waste program aimed at reducing food waste. An evaluation in 2012 showed that avoidable waste of food and drink (that could have been eaten) had fallen by 21% in five years following the launch of the program.

Most of this reduction has been in household food waste. The WRAP program is now working with the food industry to reduce waste in other sectors. The successful UK Love Food Hate Waste program aimed at reducing household food waste has been taken up by state governments in Victoria and New South Wales.

Australia is developing a national food waste strategy – the Food Waste 2025 Strategy – and stakeholders from across the food supply chain meet this month to discuss how to reduce food waste.

Australia should follow suit in setting a target to halve food waste across the food supply chain to put Australia’s food system on a more sustainable footing.

*Correction: This figure has been updated. It previously incorrectly stated that Melbourne’s food waste is enough to feed 2,000 people per year.

Seona Candy is a research fellow on the Foodprint Melbourne project, which is funded by the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation. Project partners include the City of Melbourne and the peak bodies representing the local government areas in Melbourne's city fringe foodbowl. She has previously received funding from an Australian Research Council Linkage grant on the project ‘Modelling policy interventions to protect Australia's food security in the face of environmental sustainability challenges’ (LP120100168), a collaboration between researchers at the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL) at the University of Melbourne, Deakin University and Australian National University. She is currently also receiving funding from the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living for a project investigating urban innovations for post-carbon resilient cities.

Jennifer Sheridan is a researcher on the Foodprint Melbourne project, which which is funded by the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation. Project partners include the City of Melbourne and the peak bodies representing the local government areas in Melbourne's city fringe foodbowl.

Rachel Carey is a Research Fellow on the Foodprint Melbourne project, which is funded by the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation. Project partners include the City of Melbourne and the peak bodies representing the local government areas in Melbourne's city fringe foodbowl. She is also a Research Fellow on the project 'Regulating Food Labels: The case of free range food products in Australia', which is funded by the Australian Research Council.

Shoppers in East Anchorage sit quietly for hours on Thursday and watch a mother moose give birth and then bond with her newborn calf in the parking of a Lowe’s hardware store. The store set up a safe zone for the mother and calf until the two eventually left the area

Continue reading...

Tiny particles of plastic litter in oceans causing deaths, stunted growth and altering behaviour of some fish that feed on them, research shows

Fish are being killed, and prevented from reaching maturity, by the litter of plastic particles finding their way into the world’s oceans, new research has proved.

Some young fish have been found to prefer tiny particles of plastic to their natural food sources, effectively starving them before they can reproduce.

Continue reading...

Barack Obama tightens restriction on sale of elephant ivory within the US to clamp down on illegal trade

Barack Obama imposed a near total ban on the commercial trade in elephant ivory on Thursday in an effort to choke off smuggling networks and end the slaughter of African wildlife.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service rules ban the sale of elephant ivory across state lines, and deepen restrictions on international ivory sales.

Continue reading...

Nepal's army begins work to drain rising waters in a lake near Everest, one the highest projects of its kind.

Multiple listings of banned species found and since Guardian investigation 19 ads were closed down – but controlling the trade is akin to a game of whack-a-mole

A killer algae, a monstrous pondweed, a tree that has infested the Everglades and a dozen more of the US’s most environmentally destructive plants have been discovered for sale on eBay. Online traders told the Guardian that ignorance of the law led them to create listings that had spread hundreds of illegal specimens across the country.

Ebay hosted multiple listings for 15 species from the federal noxious weeds list the nation’s highest level of plant biosecurity. Most offered import to the US from abroad. But six sellers were hawking plants from within the country.

Continue reading...