Feed aggregator

Flood waters and heavy rain has completely submerged the main street of the historic Ellicott City in Maryland. Authorities were assessing the damage after the flood waters swept away parked cars on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Endangered species can thrive in habitats other than forests, paving way for their return

Eighty years after they were hunted to extinction, the successful reintroduction of a herd of wild European bison onto the dunes of the Dutch coast is paving the way for their return across the continent.

The largest land-living animal in Europe was last seen in the Netherlands centuries ago, and was wiped out on the continent by 1927. Despite successful efforts to breed the species again in the wilds of Poland in the 1950s, and renewed efforts in the last decade in western Europe, the European bison remains as endangered as the black rhino.

Continue reading...

Allume Energy has switched on its first suburban shared solar system that allows PV electricity to be distributed and billed to individual tenants, for 30% less than grid costs.

Sungrow Power has launched its next generation suite of inverter and battery storage technology in Australia, including the 4.8kWh lithium-ion PowCube.

Hyundai Heavy Industries re-enters Australian solar market, with $70m vote of confidence in residential and commercial rooftop solar boom.

Redflow technology chief and Tesla owner says governments need to move beyond fossil fuel "idiocy" and get smart about EVs and storage.

LONGi Solar announced that China General Certification Center has validated that LONGi Solar's 60-cell bifacial shingling module achieved a front-side conversion efficiency of 20.66%, the highest in the world to date.

Within 10 years, the only ICE vehicles of any value will be rare classics from the days when Australian’s loved their cars. Here's why.

Scientists have tried to measure how dolphins at a French marine park feel about their environment.

Scientists have tried to measure how dolphins at a French marine park feel about their environment.

Animal welfare researchers measure how captive dolphins feel about their environment.

Animal welfare researchers measure how captive dolphins feel about their environment.

Sailing ships have been around for thousands of years - long before the advent of fossil fuels. With the global shipping sector now attempting to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, could sails be due a renaissance? Christiaan De Beukelaer, Lecturer in Cultural Policy, University of Melbourne Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Read the experiences of the four surviving astronauts to have set foot on the lunar surface.

Read the experiences of the four surviving astronauts to have set foot on the lunar surface.

Manufacturers will act early on September 2020 ban as LED already the preferred option

• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon

Halogen lights will disappear from Australia within two years, as the industry and federal government pivot towards more efficient and environmentally-friendly LED lighting.

A ban on halogen bulbs, which use four times the energy of LED globes, was announced last month at a meeting of state and federal environment ministers.

Continue reading...

Revealed report finds tens of millions going into projects that don’t create new emissions reductions
• Sign up to receive the top stories every morning

Independent experts advising the Turnbull government have called for changes to the Coalition’s Direct Action climate policy to prevent tens of millions of dollars of public money going to projects that would have gone ahead anyway.

The recommendation is in a review of the $2.55bn emissions reduction fund, the central plank of Direct Action, which pays landowners and companies to avoid emissions or sequester carbon dioxide in plants at the lowest cost. The fund is supposed to support projects that would reduce Australia’s carbon pollution below what it would otherwise have been.

Continue reading...

The Guardian’s picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world

Continue reading...

Guardian readers respond to Michael Gove’s defence of what the government is doing to address air pollution

We must cut through the smog of rhetoric if we are to have clean air. Through deft political sleight of hand, the environment secretary Michael Gove’s defence of what the government is doing to address air pollution (Letters, 24 May) diverts attention from the cause of dirty air in most of our cities: diesel-fuelled vehicles. This risks slowing down the action required to tackle air pollution at a moment when more and more people are becoming aware that it is a serious risk to health in places beyond London.

As city leaders, we are keen to work with ministers to tackle the wider challenges of air pollution, but this requires a government strategy that has cleaner transport at its heart. We need a national framework so that residents and businesses can make the shift as quickly as possible to less polluting ways of moving around.

Continue reading...

Environment Secretary Michael Gove launches a review of the country's protected landscapes.