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Coral decline in Great Barrier Reef 'unprecedented'
Reef monitoring program shows northern section has lost half of its coral cover
A steep decline in coral cover right across the Great Barrier Reef is a phenomenon that “has not been observed in the historical record”, a new report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science says.
The institute, Australia’s government-backed marine research agency, periodically releases results of a long-term reef monitoring program. Each reef along the Queensland coast is visited by researchers every two years to assess its condition and coral cover.
The latest results, released on Tuesday, detail how major bleaching events in 2016 and 2017 have impacted on different sections of the reef. AIMS said it had no previous record of bleaching events occurring in successive years.
“Over the 30-plus years of monitoring by AIMS, Great Barrier Reef reefs have shown their ability to recover after disturbances, but such ‘resilience’ clearly has limits,” the report says.
Continue reading...From Brentford to Brooklyn, cycling improvements are clear votewinners | Andrew Gilligan
Sadiq Khan should take heed of the evidence and push on with the changes needed to keep cyclists safe on London’s roads
The decay of London’s cycling programme is starting to cost lives. In the last three and a half weeks, three cyclists have been killed at locations where schemes to make the road safe, or provide a safe alternative route, have been watered down or stopped under the mayoralty of Sadiq Khan.
On 11 May, Oliver Speke died after a collision two days earlier with a lorry at Romney Road, Greenwich. On 18 May, Edgaras Cepura was killed by a lorry on the same road, a mile or so to the east. There was supposed to have been a new cycle superhighway avoiding Romney Road by now, and a safe, segregated junction at the roundabout where Cepura was killed. Both schemes were postponed indefinitely after Khan came to office.
Continue reading...The planet is on edge of a global plastic calamity | Erik Solheim
We urgently need consumers, business and governments to cut consumption of single-use, throwaway plastics, writes the UN Environment chief
Plastic pollution has grabbed the world’s attention, and with good cause.
More than 100 years after its invention, we’re addicted. To pass a day without encountering some form of plastic is nearly impossible. We’ve always been eager to embrace the promise of a product that could make life cheaper, faster, easier. Now, after a century of unchecked production and consumption, convenience has turned to crisis.
Continue reading...Man begins six-month swim through 'Great Pacific garbage patch'
Ben Lecomte hopes to make it from Japan to San Francisco in 180 days while raising awareness of plastic pollution
A French anti-plastic campaigner has begun a six-month journey to swim through the giant floating rubbish mass known as the Great Pacific garbage patch.
Ben Lecomte, who has previously swum across the Atlantic Ocean in 1998, left the shores of Choshi in Japan on Tuesday morning, heading east.
Continue reading...Power companies less trusted by consumers than banks, telcos
Rooftop solar boom marches on, as NSW surges ahead
Trump’s coal industry bail out would punish red states the most
Plug and Play 2: Making the shift to a consumer-led market
E-mail: Three-wheeling posties herald electric future
Nissan marks sale of 100,000 LEAF electric vehicles in Europe
Australia's largest windfarm wins planning approval
$1bn project in Queensland’s Bowen basin to consist of almost 200 turbines
The Queensland government has approved the country’s largest windfarm, a $1bn project to build almost 200 turbines in the shadow of the Bowen basin’s coalmines.
The 800-megawatt Clarke Creek project, in cattle country north-west of Rockhampton, received planning approval on Tuesday morning. The company behind the project, Lacour Energy, says it will create about 350 jobs during three years of construction and has the capacity to provide 3% of the generation required to power the entire state. It also includes a solar component.
Continue reading...Queensland’s biggest wind farm approved, may add solar and storage
50 nations 'curbing plastic pollution'
What do slugs hate? Home remedies put to the test
Why do we love to dance with each other?
Heathrow: Grayling to confirm final plan for third runway
Transport secretary will set out proposals amid growing rift over expansion scheme
Chris Grayling is to confirm the government’s final plans for a third runway at Heathrow as the Tories prepare to impose a three-line whip in favour and Labour consider whether to remove its backing for the project.
The transport secretary will set out his proposals for the expansion to senior colleagues on the cabinet’s economic subcommittee on Tuesday morning, before the decision goes to the full cabinet for approval.
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