Feed aggregator

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday but where do the prizes come from?

Prince says catastrophic hurricanes are consequence of climate change and welcomes growing awareness of plastic pollution

The world’s oceans are at last receiving the attention they deserve, as the scale of plastic pollution is finally becoming clear, the Prince of Wales has said, hailing this growing awareness as the first step to saving the marine environment.

Prince Charles said it had taken years for the enormity of the problem to emerge, but promised to make it a key priority of his campaigning, alongside rainforests.

Continue reading...

Response: an opinion piece by Laura Laker accused me of hypocrisy, but our review examining the law and cycling aims to make the roads safer for everyone

Laura Laker accuses me of “headline-grabbing hypocrisy” in relation to the safety of cyclists. That’s quite an extreme reaction to my announcement of a review whose specific purpose is to improve the safety of all road users, especially in relation to cyclists.

As I made clear, the review will address two key issues. The first is legal: whether the law is defective in the case of bodily harm or death from a cyclist, and specifically whether, as the rule of law demands, there is an adequate remedy here. Our aim is to complete this work early in the new year.

Continue reading...

The 2017 Nobel prizes for the sciences have all been announced, but many in the scientific community are pointing out the lack of female laureates.

New figures show the UK government failed to reduce illegal levels of air pollution in the 18 months after a court ordered it to clean up the air.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott will address the London-based climate sceptic group, Global Warming Policy Foundation on October 9th. We preview his speech titled 'Daring to Doubt'.

A major conference examines how to limit the more damaging impacts of intensive farming systems.

Deputy premier brands Australia ‘deforestation hotspot’ after a 45% jump in her state’s reef catchment clearing

Queensland underwent a dramatic surge in tree clearing – with the heaviest losses in Great Barrier Reef catchments – in the year leading up to the Palaszczuk government’s thwarted bid to restore protections.

Figures released on Thursday showed a 33% rise in clearing to almost 400,000 hectares in 2015-16, meaning Queensland now has two-thirds the annual rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.

Continue reading...

Australia maintains strong pace of rooftop solar installations in September, and is now set to break through the 1GW annual instal milestone for the first time in 2017.

The public consultation period will be open until 22 November 2017.

WWF report finds 60% of global biodiversity loss is down to meat-based diets which put huge strain on Earth’s resources

The ongoing global appetite for meat is having a devastating impact on the environment driven by the production of crop-based feed for animals, a new report has warned.

The vast scale of growing crops such as soy to rear chickens, pigs and other animals puts an enormous strain on natural resources leading to the wide-scale loss of land and species, according to the study from the conservation charity WWF.

Continue reading...

Crook, County Durham Within a day of uploading a picture of what I thought was one species of harvestman, I was told it was a more interesting alien

We may be living in a golden age for natural historians. The old naturalists’ field clubs, rooted in the Victorian passion for collecting and sharing knowledge of flora and fauna, may be in decline, but, thanks to social media, it has never been easier to correspond with a helpful expert when you need one.

Post a picture of, say, an unfamiliar spider on the internet and it’s likely that someone out there will identify it for you.

Continue reading...

Men in late 20s and early 30s with alcohol or drugs in their system the most frequent victims of fatal river drowning

Risk-taking young men who drown trying to swim Melbourne’s Yarra river are making it the deadliest inland river per metre in Australia.

New data shows alcohol, drugs, tourists and young men who dare each other to swim the river are contributing to regular drownings.

Continue reading...

Another page in Queensland’s renewable energy boom story has been turned with Queensland Government-Owned generator - CS Energy - entering a 10 year-agreement with the 60 megawatt Kennedy Energy Park.

The world’s renewable electricity capacity is set to rise sharply over the next five years, the IEA says, expanding 43% on today’s levels.

Saudi solar tender attracts stunning low bid of $US17.9/MWh, as even the conservative IEA hails a "new era of solar." And while Australia currently enjoys an investment boom, a new report by Climate Council says "politics" is the only major barrier to a high penetration renewable grid.

Samsung batteries to be used in new 30MW battery storage project next to create reenables-based micro-grid in South Australia.

Gullen Range solar farm is the first to be paired with a wind farm, but is just one of a number of wind-solar hybrids planned for Australia.

At most, the current orthodoxy – despite its renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy efficiency – will result in flat or gently declining emissions. It's time to stick it up the orthodoxy!

Rick Perry's plan to require increased payments to some coal plants is part of a global trend as the coal lobby desperately tries to rescue failing coal plants.