Feed aggregator

A travel article on a wildlife trip to the Chernobyl disaster zone failed to highlight the continuing radiation threat to people, animals and plants, write David Lowry and Ian Fairlie

Tom Allan’s report of his holiday inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone (Nuclear reaction, Travel, 25 May) was both misleading and dangerous in its assertions. He gives the impression that the radiation dangers are minimal: “less radiation risk than on a single transatlantic flight”, according to his ornithologist Belarusian guide, Valery Yurko.

The problem around Chernobyl is not average radiation exposure but the millions of highly radioactive hotspots of radioactive particles spewed from inside the destroyed Chernobyl reactor core. The entire exclusion zone area has suffered from serious forest fires in the 33 years since the catastrophe, re-suspending these hot particles into the atmosphere and spreading them around.

Continue reading...

Britain free of Xylella fastidiosa, known as cuckoo spit, but experts are on high alert

Scientists are calling for thousands of keen-eyed volunteers to report findings of frothy spittle, often called cuckoo spit and found on plants across the UK, in a pre-emptive strike against a deadly plant disease.

Xylella fastidiosa, is described by the European commission as “one of the most harmful pathogenic bacteria worldwide”. It arrived in Europe six years ago and has already struck several countries, devastating olive groves in southern Italy, and spreading to other EU countries including parts of France and Spain.

Continue reading...

Angus Taylor to combine energy and emissions reductions, while Melissa Price dumped from environment and replaced by Sussan Ley.

The post Taylor gets energy and emissions portfolio, Price dumped from environment appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion demonstrators, many dressed as endangered animals, rally in Brisbane

Around 250 environmental activists have laid down among the dinosaurs at the Queensland Museum on Sunday, in the first large Extinction Rebellion event in Brisbane.

Protesters, many dressed as endangered animals, laid on the floor of the museum’s Lost Creatures exhibit amid fossils and dinosaur reconstructions, including the state’s famous Muttaburrasaurus.

Continue reading...

Australian science agency says there are a ‘negligible number of human deaths’ from snake bites in Australia

The popular suggestion that Australia is home to the world’s deadliest snakes is largely a myth, with the risk of bites and death far greater across Asia, Africa and South America, the nation’s science agency has said.

Herpetologist Ruchira Somaweera from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said the myth was born a few decades ago and came out of a study of the relatively high toxicity levels found in Australian species, such as brown snakes.

Continue reading...

Scientists want thousands of volunteers to help record sightings of "spittle" and spittlebugs across the UK.

Hear about a plan to turn the air-conditioners of the world into a network of carbon-sucking fuel producers. Learn about a new licencing system for open-source seeds. Get the low down on who really lives in “tiny houses” and why.

BBC's Megha Mohan finds out why voice assistant technologies often have female voices.

Shadow attorney general condemns Met’s plans to to charge 1,100 protesters

Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general, has accused police of stepping out of line by announcing plans to push for the prosecution of more than 1,100 Extinction Rebellion protesters.

Deputy assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor said on Friday that the Metropolitan police had a team of 30 officers preparing cases against those arrested during the protests over Easter, and that he anticipated putting “all of those [cases] to the Crown Prosecution Service for decisions”.

Continue reading...

Young people all over the world are walking out of school in protest of climate change - and Belfast is no different.

The Tasmanian forest fires of 2019 fit a world pattern of more destructive forest fires as rainfall changes, temperatures rise, and weather patterns shift. Tasmania’s fires which burned for weeks have had their effect on people’s psychological well-being.

A stalemate over iron ore waste has the mining magnate and Mark McGowan at loggerheads and 3,000 jobs on the line

Clive Palmer’s millions may not have bought him a seat in Parliament, but the eccentric billionaire is still firing political barbs across the nation.

This time his target is not Canberra, but Western Australia, where, on the back of his election defeat, he claimed a legal victory over his Chinese business partners.

Continue reading...

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Research shows type of events will change and they will become more frequent in central Pacific

New research in Nature Geoscience looks at coral records to show how the pattern of El Niño events has altered over the last four centuries.

El Niño, considered one of the most important climatic phenomena globally, involves a warming of the Pacific Ocean’s surface. The Spanish term for “The Boy”, referring to the infant Jesus, as El Niño’s effect may be most evident around Christmas. There are two types of El Niño, those in the eastern Pacific, close to South America, and those further out in the central Pacific.

As expected, the report found El Niño events have become more frequent. It also showed a change in the type.

“We used to have roughly the same number of central and eastern Pacific events,” says the lead researcher, Mandy Freund, of the University of Melbourne. “Most recently, we only have one eastern Pacific event and nine central Pacific events.”

Both types of events mean reduced rainfall in Asia and Australia, but the eastern Pacific version brings heavy rainfall and flooding in the Americas, while central Pacific events produce dry conditions. El Niño events also affect other weather phenomena around the globe, including cyclones and colder British winters.

The research will enable scientists to create better models to predict the effects of future El Niño events.

Continue reading...

Backyard beekeepers take part in citizen science program, community using social media to connect families in need with kind strangers, artist turning beach rubbish into marine-themed sculptures, couple show off collection of antique sewing machines.

Cattle company AACo blame extreme weather floods and droughts for $180m loss this year.

The reserve at North Bungulla is quiet all day until the winds of the evening make the trees creak in the falling light. The winds bring the news that Barbara York Main has died.

EUAs fell on Friday to unravel more of what remained of the week’s gains as the UK Prime Minister’s resignation stoked Brexit uncertainty and bearish sentiment despite an auction-starved week ahead.

A summary of legislative and regulatory action on carbon pricing and clean energy at the US subnational and federal level taken this week, including the push to finish Oregon’s WCI-modelled cap-and-trade proposal, Maryland’s governor proposing an alternative method of achieving 100% clean electricity, and several developments related to compliance waivers and proposed biofuel credit trading reforms under the federal Renewable Fuels Standard.

Hundreds of thousands walk out of lessons in 110 countries demanding urgent action

Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren across the world have gone on strike in protest at the escalating climate crisis.

Students from 1,800 towns and cities in more than 110 countries stretching from India to Australia and the UK to South Africa, walked out of lessons on Friday, the organisers of the action said.

Continue reading...