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Red list: thousands of species at risk of extinction due to human activity

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-12-05 20:56

Unsustainable farming, fishing and climate change has intensified the struggle for survival among vulnerable animals and crops, says IUCN at the release of its latest list of endangered species

Thousands of animal species are at critical risk of going extinct due to unsustainable farming and fishing methods and climate change, a conservation group has warned as it released the latest red list of endangered species.

In a rare piece of good news, the International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] praised New Zealand for its success in turning around the fortunes of two species of kiwi, prompting it to upgrade them from endangered to vulnerable.

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Pizza night aboard the International Space Station

BBC - Tue, 2017-12-05 20:44
Crew members aboard the International Space Station are treated to a special meal.
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Brexit poses huge risk to Britain's food standards, report says

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-12-05 20:20

Rush to secure trade deals could lead to a lowering of standards and poorer quality food in supermarkets

Brexit poses huge risks to food standards in the UK and will have “seismic implications” for its food and farming systems, according to a new report.

Author Dan Crossley, executive director of the Food Ethics Council, said that the UK faced a stark choice between promoting a high quality, ethical and sustainable system and “a race to the bottom” driven by a desire to secure post-Brexit trade deals “at any cost”.

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Australia's frog count: App calls on citizen scientists

BBC - Tue, 2017-12-05 18:25
Scientists hope the public will help them record the sounds of the amphibians via an app.
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Royal Society Publishing Photography competition 2017 - in pictures

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-12-05 18:00

The Royal Society’s annual contest celebrates the power of photography to communicate science, and the role great images play in making science accessible to a wide audience. This year the competition has proved more popular than ever, attracting more than 1,100 entries.

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IUCN Red List: Wild crops listed as threatened

BBC - Tue, 2017-12-05 17:08
Wild relatives of modern crops deemed crucial for food security are threatened with extinction.
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Climate change is radically reshuffling UK bird species, report finds

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-12-05 17:01

New migrants are arriving while rising temperatures drive others away, and egg laying is taking place earlier in the year

Climate change is radically reshuffling Britain’s birds, with some species disappearing while new migrants are settling. Timings are being reset too, with egg laying getting earlier in the year, while autumn departures for warmer climes are delayed by up to a month.

The State of the UK’s Birds report for 2017, published on Tuesday, reveals the profound impact of global warming on Britain’s bird life, which is set to become even greater in the future.

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Oceans under greatest threat in history, warns Sir David Attenborough

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-12-05 16:30

Blue Planet 2 producers say final episode lays bare shocking damage humanity is wreaking in the seas, from climate change to plastic pollution to noise

The world’s oceans are under the greatest threat in history, according to Sir David Attenborough. The seas are a vital part of the global ecosystem, leaving the future of all life on Earth dependent on humanity’s actions, he says.

Attenborough will issue the warning in the final episode of the Blue Planet 2 series, which details the damage being wreaked in seas around the globe by climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing and even noise.

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Country diary: this bird could be spooked by its own shadow

The Guardian - Tue, 2017-12-05 15:30

Rockland Broad, Norfolk The water rail’s distressed call tells you everything about its solitary life buried in deepest cover

As the light falls in my neighouring parish and the mercury drops, so the bird sounds acquire extra layers of intensity. I’m thinking of the hysterical chinking of blackbirds in the ivy and the disembodied sharp pitt notes of Cetti’s warblers. Most evocative of all, however, are the water rails.

Related to the moorhen and coot, this arch introvert is long-legged and long-billed, with a curious laterally compressed body that enables it to thread tiny gaps between reed stems. It is common in our valley but I seldom see one. Tonight there are four, and the way they answer each other’s sounds at 100-metre intervals across the marsh tells you everything about their solitariness and oddity.

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Kevin Rudd: ‘I don’t know how Malcolm Turnbull faces his grandkids’

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 14:14
Australia’s former prime minister talks about the failure of his country’s climate policy, the rise of China and the Carmichael coal mine.
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The secret world of Australia’s solar and energy contract prices

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 13:56
Around the world, energy auctions have tracked the stunning falls in the cost of solar. But in Australia, auction results are not released, typical of a market that trades in ignorance and scarcity, for the benefit of the incumbents rather than the consumer.
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Sunraysia solar + storage facility moves closer as contractor chosen

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 13:45
Decmil Group signs MOU with Maoneng for development of 250MW Sunraysia solar farm, one of the biggest in NSW development pipeline.
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Will the NEG alone really lead to low prices and high reliabilty?

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 13:43
Modelling presented by Energy Security Board in favour of the NEG looks, kindly put, implausible. The old aphorism is that if it looks long it probably is. So why are we building policy around it?
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This 4.9MW solar farm will be South Australia’s largest, for a while

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 12:00
Renew Power Group to build 4.9MW solar farm in South Australia, which will be biggest in the state till bigger projects are completed.
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Solar unlimited: How to use inverters to get past export limits

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 11:12
Solar panel system owners are becoming more and more ambitious about what they want from their PV systems, and are now installing 10kW + PV arrays and over-sizing their inverters.
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Enphase Energy opens its first R&D center in India

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 10:58
India is powering the growth of solar with its ambitious targets for clean energy and is expected to be ranked as the world’s third largest solar market in 2017. Enphase plans to support this rapid growth with the opening of its Bangalore R&D center.
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How UK's birds are being affected by a changing climate

BBC - Tue, 2017-12-05 10:13
Migratory birds are arriving in the UK earlier each spring and leaving later each autumn, a study shows.
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Ocean plastic a 'planetary crisis' - UN

BBC - Tue, 2017-12-05 10:10
Life in the seas risks irreparable damage from the ever-increasing tide of plastic waste, the UN's head of oceans has warned.
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Renewable Energy Market Report – NEG causes jump in prices

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 09:13
Market uncertainty created by proposed National Energy Guarantee has caused longer term LGC prices to jump, while STC market worried about oversupply.
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Yes, the Tesla battery is massive, but it can do much more beside

RenewEconomy - Tue, 2017-12-05 08:53
Many are now watching to see what impact the battery has on the SA electricity market, and whether it could be a game-changer nationally.
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