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Easter eggs rated by palm oil use

The Guardian - Mon, 2013-03-25 20:21
Lindt, Thorntons and Guylian come bottom of a league table of chocolate Easter eggs scored on use of unsustainable palm oil

Lindt, Thorntons and Guylian have come bottom of a green ranking of Easter eggs based on their use of palm oil. Divine Chocolate came top, with the Co-operative and Sainsbury's close behind in the survey of more than 70 brands by Ethical Consumer magazine and charity Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK).

The organisations are launching a campaign in response to the increasing threat that unsustainable palm oil is posing to the world's rainforests, their indigenous wildlife, and the people whose livelihoods depend on the forests. Having destroyed vast areas of forest in countries such as Indonesia, palm oil companies are now planning to expand in the rainforests of the Congo Basin in Africa.

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Categories: Around The Web

Technical Seminar 19 March - the Carbon Faming Initiative

Newsletters QLD - Fri, 2013-03-15 07:13
Technical Seminar 19 March - the Carbon Faming Initiative
Categories: Newsletters QLD

Shark species facing extinction - in pictures

The Guardian - Mon, 2013-03-11 21:10
Almost 100 million sharks are being killed each year, with fishing rates outstripping the ability of populations to recover, scientists have estimated. Sharks are targeted for their fins for use in shark fin soup, a delicacy in Asia, but as they are slow-growing and slow to reproduce, they are vulnerable to overfishing Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

SEng Victoria Newsletter

Newsletters VIC - Thu, 2013-03-07 02:07
SEng Victoria Newsletter
Categories: Newsletters VIC

1.5C rise in temperature enough to start permafrost melt, scientists warn

The Guardian - Fri, 2013-02-22 05:00
Team of scientists use radiometric dating techniques on Russian cave formations to measure historic melting rates

A global temperature rise of 1.5C would be enough to start the melting of permafrost in Siberia, scientists warned on Thursday.

Any widespread thaw in Siberia's permanently frozen ground could have severe consequences for climate change. Permafrost covers about 24% of the land surface of the northern hemisphere, and widespread melting could eventually trigger the release of hundreds of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide and methane, which would have a massive warming effect.

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Chinese environment official challenged to swim in polluted river

The Guardian - Fri, 2013-02-22 01:02
Bao Zhenming, who declined to take up the challenge was offered over £20,000 to swim in the contaminated waterway

Widespread outrage against China's environmental issues that began when Beijing's air pollution hit record levels last month has spread to encompass another major public health threat: water pollution.

Last week, an eyeglass-retailer executive from Rui'an City, coastal Zhejiang province, offered the city's environmental protection chief Bao Zhenming more than £20,000 to take a 20-minute dip in a highly polluted local river. The entrepreneur, Jin Zengmin, posted the dare to his microblog beneath pictures showing the waterway overflowing with discarded aluminum cans, polystyrene boxes and paper lanterns. He blamed the river's industrial demise on dumping by a local rubber shoe factory.

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SEng Victoria News

Newsletters VIC - Sun, 2013-02-17 10:53
SEng Victoria News
Categories: Newsletters VIC

SEng National Newsletter - Issue 1

Newsletters National - Wed, 2013-02-13 21:18
SEng National Newsletter - Issue 1
Categories: Newsletters National

Welcome to 2013 with SSEE! The Brisbane Floods 2 years on

Newsletters QLD - Thu, 2013-02-07 21:57
Welcome to 2013 with SSEE! The Brisbane Floods 2 years on
Categories: Newsletters QLD

After 30 years, is a GM food breakthrough finally here?

The Guardian - Sun, 2013-02-03 05:47
Golden rice, a new strain that boosts vitamin A levels and reduces blindness in developing countries, could be sown in the Philippines – and is the new battleground crop

Scientists say they have seen the future of genetically modified foods and have concluded that it is orange or, more precisely, golden. Next year, golden rice – normal rice that has been genetically modified to provide vitamin A to counter blindness and other diseases in children in the developing world – could be given to farmers in the Philippines for planting in paddy fields.

Thirty years after scientists first revealed they had created the world's first GM crop, hopes that their potential to ease global malnutrition problems may be realised at last. Bangladesh and Indonesia have indicated they are ready to accept golden rice and other nations, including India, have also said that they are considering planting it.

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Devastation on England's east coast after 1953's 'Big Flood' – in pictures

The Guardian - Thu, 2013-01-31 22:24
In the worst natural disaster Britain experienced during the 20th century, the low-lying housing of England's east coast was devastated by a huge tidal surge, which left 307 people dead and 40,000 homeless. A lack of preparedness was the cause of the huge scale of the disaster, and the emergency response was led by the community, with the majority of search and rescue done before central government became involved Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Florida’s inaugural Python Challenge hunt – in pictures

The Guardian - Wed, 2013-01-23 22:28
The Python Challenge, an open-invitation competition held by the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is a one-month snake hunt to catch and kill invasive and prolific Burmese pythons. The contest has drawn hundreds of amateur hunters armed with captive bolt guns and machetes, each hoping to win the $1,000 and $1,500 prizes Continue reading...
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Stranded killer whales break free from Hudson Bay ice

The Guardian - Fri, 2013-01-11 03:17
The dozen trapped orcas swam free after changing weather conditions cracked the sea ice in northern Canada

A dozen killer whales, trapped and facing near-certain death in the frozen expanse of Canada's Hudson Bay, broke free on Thursday morning, to the vast relief of locals and many thousands monitoring their plight online.

Pictures of the whales clustered around a 10-foot hole in the ice that was their last source of oxygen had set off a desperate search for rescue options.

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Why cycling in high-vis may be not as safe as you think | Peter Walker

The Guardian - Thu, 2013-01-10 17:00
A study of motorcyclists shows head-to-toe fluorescent yellow does not always ensure you are visible

A couple of years ago I took a condensed version of the training programme for cycle officers with London's City police, a process which began with my instructor following me to assess my riding as we pedalled through the busy streets. His verdict? Mainly fine, barring what he insisted on terming a "mistake" - that even in early afternoon on a bright April day I was not wearing some sort of high-visibility waistcoat or jacket.

High vis is a vexed subject for cyclists. Probably only helmets and light jumping cause more arguments. Ultimately, of course, what you wear on your bike is personal choice. Full Lycra gimp garb? Office clothes? Nothing at all? Go right ahead. Nonetheless, the debate merits an airing, for two reasons.

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Overfishing causes Pacific bluefin tuna numbers to drop 96%

The Guardian - Thu, 2013-01-10 03:17
Conservationists also warned that the vast majority caught were juveniles and had never reproduced

The bluefin tuna, which has been endangered for several years and has the misfortune to be prized by Japanese sushi lovers, has suffered a catastrophic decline in stocks in the Northern Pacific Ocean, of more than 96%, according to research published on Wednesday.

Equally concerning is the fact that about 90% of specimens currently fished are young fish that have not yet reproduced.

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What I learned the day a dying whale spared my life | Paul Watson

The Guardian - Thu, 2013-01-10 01:40
It was 1975, Greenpeace's first campaign, and the bodies of six Soviet-slaughtered whales were lying lifeless in the swell. I thought to myself, is humanity really this insane?

The greatest gift that I have ever received is also my great and enduring curse.

It was June 1975 and I was a crew member on the first Greenpeace campaign to protect the whales. It was off the coast of northern California, 60 miles offshore. Before us, spread across the waters like some invading foreign armada, was the Soviet whaling fleet.

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Australia adds new colour to temperature maps as heat soars

The Guardian - Tue, 2013-01-08 21:34
Forecast temperatures are so extreme that the Bureau of Meteorology has had to add a new colour to its scale. It is a sign of things to come

• Australian project simulates effects of runaway climate change
Deadly heatwaves will be more frequent in coming decades

Global warming is turning the volume of extreme weather up, Spinal-Tap-style, to 11. The temperature forecast for next Monday by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology is so unprecedented - over 52C - that it has had to add a new colour to the top of its scale, a suitably incandescent purple.

Australia's highest recorded temperature is 50.7C, set in January 1960 in South Australia. The record for the hottest average day across the nation was set on Monday, at 40.3C, exceeding a 40-year-old record. "What makes this event quite exceptional is how widespread and intense it's been," said Aaron Coutts-Smith, the weather bureau's climate services manager. "We have been breaking records across all states and territories in Australia over the course of the event so far." Wildfires are raging across New South Wales and Tasmania.

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Categories: Around The Web

SSEE QLD Wishes you a Merry Christmas!

Newsletters QLD - Sun, 2012-12-16 22:58
SSEE QLD Wishes you a Merry Christmas!
Categories: Newsletters QLD

Chasing Ice movie reveals largest iceberg break-up ever filmed - video

The Guardian - Wed, 2012-12-12 19:38
It's like watching 'Manhattan breaking apart in front of your eyes', says one of the researchers for filmmaker James Balog. He's describing the largest iceberg calving ever filmed, as featured in his movie, Chasing Ice. After weeks of waiting, the filmakers witnessed 7.4 cubic km of ice crashing off the Ilulissat glacier in Greenland. Chasing Ice, released in the UK on Friday, follows Balog's mission to document Arctic ice being melted by climate change. Watch our second clip from the documentary to see the filmmakers abseil down Survey Canyon on the Greenland ice sheet to capture some startling images of meltwater rushing down a moulin Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Your memories of the 1952 great smog

The Guardian - Thu, 2012-12-06 21:35
On Wednesday we marked the 60th anniversary of London's 'great smog' with dramatic photographs. Here, we've rounded up your memories of the smog, and others in the years after

I remember as a nine year old in 1959 living in South Ealing barely being able to see to catch the bus to school and my dad having to be guided home by a policeman with a torch – he was on our road at the time but had become completely disorientated. The policeman had a torch and used that to read the road name and house number.

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