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Jerry Maycock announced as new Chair of TransGrid
China further cementing its clean energy dominance
Explainer: 'bomb cyclones' – the intense winter storms that hit the US (and Australia too)
Beak fitness: New Zealand develops roadside gym for endangered keas
Conservationists want to stop the birds – dubbed the world’s smartest parrot – from wandering onto roads and begging humans for food
Bird experts in New Zealand have designed a special gym for the country’s playful alpine parrot to keep them away from some of the nation’s most dangerous roads.
For the last couple of years contractors working on the road to Milford Sound in the South Island have captured footage of keas moving their road cones and equipment into the middle of the road when the workers knocked off overnight.
Continue reading...Meet the butterflies from 200 million years ago
Theresa May aims to eradicate plastic litter by 2042
Theresa May proposes plastic-free supermarket aisles in green strategy
PM to declare war on scourge of plastic waste as she unveils much-heralded 25-year environmental plan
Theresa May is to announce a war on plastic waste, with proposed policies including plastics-free aisles in supermarkets and a tax on takeaway containers.
The prime minister will set out her ambition to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste within 25 years in a major speech on Thursday in which she will promise the UK will lead internationally on environmental issues. But campaign groups said the aspirations would need to be backed up by legislation.
Continue reading...WWF introduces a blockchain solution to illegal fishing, human rights abuses
A month in, Tesla's SA battery is surpassing expectations
Light shed on mystery space radio pulses
Coastal states to Trump: why is Florida exempt from drilling and not us?
Ryan Zinke confirmed Florida would be exempt from massive offshore plan – which other states claim is simply a favor for Republican governor Rick Scott
Governors of coastal states have urged the Trump administration to scrap its plan to usher oil and gas drilling into almost all US waters, in an unusual bipartisan backlash against the surprise proposal itself – and the controversial twist that suddenly saw Florida, alone, excused from going along with it.
Related: Trump administration won't allow oil drilling off Florida coast
Continue reading...New round of oil drilling goes deeper into Ecuador's Yasuní national park
State oil company starts second phase of drilling in one of the world’s most biodiverse hotspots
Ecuador’s state oil company has begun drilling the first of 97 planned wells inside a new field of the Yasuní national park, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
The opening of the Tambococha-2 well has triggered fierce criticism from conservationists, who say President Lenín Moreno is backtracking on a promise to protect the Amazon and pay greater heed to the opinion of indigenous groups.
Minerals Council of Australia kicks off coal power campaign despite BHP threat
Lobby group aims to curb ‘misinformation from urban activists’ to show ‘potential of Australian minerals sector’
The Minerals Council of Australia will continue hawking the benefits of coal-fired technologies, despite resources giant BHP threatening to pull out of the organisation over previous campaigns.
The lobby group says it is hoping to counteract “misinformation from urban activists”.
US offshore drilling: Florida wins exemption from Trump plan
Flying telescope yields insights into birth of stars
Storm chaser braves 2017's wild year of US weather – in pictures
With three hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and tornadoes, 2017 was a turbulent year across the US, costing a record $306bn in damage. Veteran storm photographer, Jason Weingart, captured the incredible displays in what was one of his most challenging years yet
Continue reading...Country diary: the woods are in disarray after the storm
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire As twitchy birds forage along the hedges, an almost path through the fallen trees leads to an ominous discovery
This is a searching time. Blackbirds examine the ivy berries like jewel thieves. Thrushes poke through the mown grass of the Gaskell recreation ground with all the attention of the forensics team brought in to investigate the Spar robbery last month. The birds are twitchy, fossicking close to the hedge lines in case of attacks by sparrowhawks. Rooks are watchful and jackdaws group-speak up and down from the trees where blue tits, long-tailed tits and great tits work the branches as if picking tiny locks. A nuthatch chisels into a hazelnut to crack its secret.
After the snow, after the gales, after Storm Whatshername emerged from a murmuration of thrashing wings to press her lips to the window and blow through the glass like a kazoo, the woods are in disarray. A few big trees have bought it, but mostly it’s the damsons around the old squat lines, blackthorn along lanes and hazel in derelict coppice that cracked and twisted in the winds.
Continue reading...SolarReserve granted approval for 150MW solar thermal project
China on track to lead in renewables as US retreats, report says
IEEFA report says China will dominate international investment in renewable technology over the next several decades
China is moving towards becoming a global leader in renewable technology as the US pulls away, a new report has said.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and still invests in coal but in recent years it has become the largest investor in domestic renewable energy. The country is now on track to lead international investment in the sector, according to the report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
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