Feed aggregator

Scottish Fold cats are increasingly popular, but vets are concerned about irresponsible breeding.

At its Annual General Meeting on 4 May, Santos will be subject to a vote on a shareholder resolution that seeks improved disclosure of climate risks.

Turnbull's intervention in gas market may guarantee supply, but is unlikely to relieve prices. LNG producers, and Santos in particular, still have a big problem.

Sandy, Bedfordshire Two kingfishers, with daggers of beaks and undercarriages of deep orange, were engaged in a chase

In the days before we gave names to storms, an anonymous blow laid low a riverside tree. Years later, leafless and lifeless, its branches bare of bark, the tree still lay across the water, an antlered jetty.

That gale had heaved the tree over, root plate and all, taking a giant’s bite out of the riverbank. The tree’s sheared and weathered anchors stuck out like pirates’ bones from the caked soil at the base of the trunk. A long-ago flood had wrapped a silt-stained shred of black plastic around one of the protruding roots.

Continue reading...

The way electricity prices were set in the wholesale market has changed dramatically in just one year. So, who's playing games with their gas and hydro power?

PM suggests public money could be used to subsidise gas pipelines in northern Australia, as well as underwriting rail plans of Indian coal giant Adani.

Despite the climate-denying Trump Administration, and populist movements across the world, Michael Liebreich gave plenty of reasons to be optimistic about future of wind, solar and Evs.

Minister for Local Government Natalie Hutchins has announced $33,200 for a program led by Nillumbik Shire Council to develop a plan for more environmentally friendly vehicle fleets.

If the world is to decarbonise, Australia's key trading partners of ours must be part of that shift. That means zero emissions hydrogen fuels - powered by wind and solar - replacing coal and gas exports.

Solar power capacity has reached 6GW in Australia, but it is just the start, with numbers expected to double by 2020 and rise ten-fold by 2040 as solar becomes the dominant provider of electricity in Australia – and potentially an export fuel as well.

Locals told proposed mine in the southern highlands of NSW, part of Sydney’s water catchment, would damage water table in the region for as long as 73 years

A controversial underground coalmine that will threaten the water supply of 71 landowners in NSW’s southern highlands will net the state government just $120m over two decades, locals have been told.

A multinational steelmaker, Korea-based Posco, is seeking approval for an underground coalmine near Berrima in the southern highlands of New South Wales, part of Sydney’s drinking-water catchment.

Continue reading...

A study that claims humans reached the Americas 130,000 years ago, much earlier than has previously been suggested, has run into controversy.

Government rapped again for failure to tighten flood-prevention rules on new homes

New recordings show newborn humpback whales and mothers "whisper" to each other, to avoid predators.

Wildflowers have erupted across California deserts in the past month in a phenomenon known as a ‘super bloom’. After heavy rainfall ended months of drought, the flowers carpeted such vast areas that the transformation was visible from space

• Video courtesy of Heather Lomax
• Images courtesy of Planet Labs

Continue reading...

The deepest and oldest waters on Earth are not immune from contamination, warn scientists.

Mount Etna, India’s ship graveyard and trees in Africa are among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month

The Mackenzie river system is Canada’s largest watershed, and the 10th largest water basin in the world. The river runs 4,200km (2,600 miles) from the Columbia icefield in the Canadian Rockies to the Arctic Ocean. If your vehicle weighs less than 22,000lb, you can drive the frozen river out to Reindeer Station. The bitterly cold ice road runs for 194km between the remote outposts of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. White, snow- and ice-covered waterways of the east channel of the Mackenzie river delta stand out amid green, pine-covered land. The low angle of the sunlight bathes the higher elevations in golden light. The pond- and lake-covered lands around the river are home to caribou, waterfowl, and a number of fish species. Several thousand reindeer travel through this area each year on the way to their calving grounds.

Continue reading...

The new cycling and walking investment strategy is the first legislation of its kind to legally bind the government to long-term funding for cycling and walking provision

Unless you’re an avid transport campaigner, it’s likely that among the rush of government announcements made last week, you will have missed one very important one: the publication of the cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS),

The government’s intention to launch a CWIS was first announced in January 2015. It took more than two years, but we now have the first legislation of its kind in England to bind the government with legal commitments to invest in cycling and walking provision.

Continue reading...

Scientists have calculated the optimal strategy for throwing something accurately, even a ball of paper.

Plunging wind and solar costs put "hydrogen" economy at tipping point, with Australia urged to lay groundwork for opportunity to develop "green fuel" exports to replace coal and gas, a market potentially worth $40bn a year. ARENA likely to make it one of its key investment priorities this year.