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Huge oil spill left after burning tanker sinks off China

BBC - Mon, 2018-01-15 22:40
Fuel from the Sanchi has spread over more than 100 sq km and could badly damage marine life.
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Study finds that global warming exacerbates refugee crises | John Abraham

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-01-15 21:00

Higher temperatures increase the number of people seeking asylum in the EU

The refugee crisis – particularly in the Mediterranean area – has received large amounts of new attention in the past few years, with people fleeing from Syria and entering the European Union emblematic of the problem. There has been some research connecting this refugee problem with changes to the climate. In particular, the years preceding the Syrian refugee crisis were characterized by a severe drought that reduced farm output and led to economic and social strife there.

Separating out the influences of climate change from general social instability may be impossible, because they are intimately linked. But we do know that climate change can cause social and economic instability. We also know that these instabilities can boil over into larger problems that lead to mass exodus. The problem isn’t knowing the connection between climate and refugees exists – rather the problem is quantifying it.

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Scotland's historic sites at high risk from climate change, report says

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-01-15 16:30

Exclusive: Many of the country’s most famous ancient sites, from Holyrood Park to the Neolithic village of Skara Brae, need urgent protection, say experts

Dozens of Scotland’s most famous historic sites are at very high risk of being badly damaged by climate change and need urgent protection, an expert survey has found.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES), the agency which oversees nearly 340 of the country’s most important castles, abbeys, Neolithic sites and ruins, has for the first time issued red warnings for nearly a fifth of its sites and put amber, high risk warnings against another 70%.

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Country diary: pink-footed geese sing the wind’s own song

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-01-15 15:30

Claxton, Norfolk: It was as if the field had uprooted and their calls were the landscape itself in full clamour

On any walk to the marsh I’m always struck how, with a single click of the closing door, the entire audible routine of the house interior – the ticking clock, the even hum of the central heating and fridge, the slow breathing of all that other civilised stuff – is washed away instantly by the sound tide of the outdoors.

What we perhaps require as animals is release from that atmospheric certainty. Being outdoors permits an immersion in the unending and endlessly unpredictable music of nature, which the musician and naturalist Bernie Krause, in his book The Great Animal Orchestra, calls the “biophony”. Perhaps it is this that restores the default settings of our species. We have been attuned to the Earth’s wild song for 100,000 generations; why should we cease to want or need it after just 10 spent mainly indoors?

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Ford to invest $11bn and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles by 2022

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-01-15 15:27

The planned investment is significantly higher than the previously announced target of $4.5bn by 2020

Ford Motor Co will significantly increase its planned investments in electric vehicles to $11bn by 2022 and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model line-up, the company’s chairman, Bill Ford, said on Sunday at the Detroit auto show.

The investment figure is sharply higher than a previously announced target of $4.5bn by 2020, Ford executives said, and includes the costs of developing dedicated electric vehicle architectures.

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This is how coal dies — super cheap renewables plus battery storage

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 14:22
New Colorado wind farms with batteries are now cheaper than running old coal plants.
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Maoneng inks major solar PPA with UNSW, via Origin

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 14:20
China-Australia renewables developer Maoneng to sell output of 200MW Sunraysia Solar Farm to UNSW, in landmark "tripartite" deal backed by Origin.
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Know your NEM: What to expect in 2018

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 13:38
If 2017 was a year of price shocks and renewables investment, we expect 2018 to be more cagey. That said, bids in America for wind plus storage at $US21/MWh is not a bad start!
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Northern Territory launches tender for up to 45MW grid-scale battery storage

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 13:23
NT calls for expressions of interest to develop battery storage system of 25-45MW to support grid in Darwin and Katherine.
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2018: Can Australian PV keep up record-breaking pace set in 2017?

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 12:31
2017 saw almost 1.1 GW of rooftop PV installed and at least another 0.1 GW of PV above 100kW commissioned. What's in store for 2018?
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What we learned about climate in 2017 – and why it’s terrifying

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 12:12
2017 marks the first time scientists concluded certain events could not have occurred – like, at all – without global warming.
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“Einstein of the solar world”: Remembering UNSW professor Stuart Wenham

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 12:06
Professor Stuart Wenham – the director of the Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence – died suddenly just before Christmas. Colleagues pay tribute to a pioneering researcher and inventor of solar cell technologies with a wide smile, iconic Aussie accent and never-say die enthusiasm.
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Second Tesla “big battery” to power Victorian agribusiness

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 11:59
US battery maker Tesla has again been selected to team up with French renewables developer Neoen on another ground-breaking Australian project; this time on a wind farm and battery storage facility that will help power a major Victorian farming business.
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Yallourn coal mine licence extension poses unacceptable risk to our climate

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 11:18
Environment Victoria CEO Mark Wakeham has responded to Yallourn power station’s proposal to extend their coal mining licence revealed in the Herald Sun today.
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Eligibility of 10–100 kW solar PV systems under the Renewable Energy Target

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2018-01-15 11:13
The Renewable Energy Target legislation has been amended to clarify the eligibility of solar photovoltaic (solar PV) systems under the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) and the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES).
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'Floating on air' after surgeons remove 19kg tumour

BBC - Mon, 2018-01-15 10:44
Watch surgeons as they remove a 19.5kg tumour from a woman's body.
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'Pesky little birds': corella culls planned in Western Australia

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-01-15 10:30

Wild flocks bred from aviary escapees pose threat to local species and ‘don’t just eat, they destroy’, mayor says

Regional councils in Western Australia are using fireworks, lethal gas, nets, and mass shooting to reduce the number of corellas, which are reportedly damaging buildings and destroying infrastructure.

The culprits are primarily eastern long-billed corellas, Cacatua tenuirostris, which were introduced to WA as a popular aviary bird.

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Citizens scientists look for mallee fowl and and kinder kids go bush

ABC Environment - Mon, 2018-01-15 10:30
Citizen scientists are put to work at a fauna reserve in north-west Victoria; Natimuk pre-schoolers ditch the classroom for an outdoor bush kinder session; and we're off to an alpaca handling school.
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Householders could face fines for using fly-tippers

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-01-15 10:01

Action to combat unlicensed waste carriers to be taken after Environment Agency uncovers 850 illegal dumping sites in a year

Households whose rubbish ends up being dumped illegally by unauthorised disposal companies could face fines under plans being considered by the government.

Councils could be given the power to directly fine people caught using unlicensed waste carriers following a consultation by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

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Country diary 1918: fowls fill dead air with an alive gurgling call

The Guardian - Mon, 2018-01-15 08:30

19 January 1918 Ducks waddled across to a narrow outlet, dabbled with their beaks, flopped in, and breasted away from the current, catching an odd flake as it fell

SURREY
Just after daybreak, while snow was falling, the fowls crept from their house, flew into the bare branches of apple trees, and filled the dead air with an alive gurgling call which tells that laying time has come. Ducks waddled across to a narrow outlet where a stream breaks quickly for the river, dabbled with their beaks, flopped in, and breasted away from the current, now and then catching an odd flake as it fell. Wood and field birds winged about aimlessly, larks and linnets going separately in small flocks, and one wagtail went to the margin of the water as if for company with the swimming birds. The snow turned to rain; the wood, clothed a minute ago in white, was now naked and cold. But a thrush came, trilled softly, then broke into almost full song; a starling perched on the farmhouse eaves shook the wet from his feathers, and tried to warble; rooks swung in their nest trees and called.

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