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Cheap condensers to displace gas as renewable energy back-up
What’s happened to South Australia’s biggest and most modern gas generators?
UK’s new air pollution strategy ‘hugely disappointing’, says Labour
Consultation proposes reducing pollutants, including particulates from wood burners and ammonia from farms – but does little to tackle diesel emissions
A new clean air strategy published by the UK government has been criticised as “hugely disappointing” by the Labour party. Other groups said it did little to tackle the dirty diesel vehicles that are the main source of toxic air in urban areas.
The new strategy, announced on Tuesday by environment secretary, Michael Gove, aims to crack down on a wide range of pollutants. These include particulates from wet wood and coal burning in homes, ammonia emissions from farms and dust from vehicle tyres and brakes.
Continue reading...Country diary: the cuckoo in the mining bee's nest
Lower Benefield, Northamptonshire: When the two eggs hatch, the nomad bee larva’s sickle-shaped jaws make short work of the mining bee larva
Our delayed spring, when it arrived, came in a sudden burst. Each insect species has a calendar slot for emerging from hibernation. For many bees good timing ensures that they emerge when their favourite flowers are opening. For the chocolate mining bee (Andrena scotica), a large, shiny, dark bee that nests in Benefield lawns and banks, success is awaking when the blackthorn blossom bursts.
The thaw triggered an explosion of flowers and insects that in warmer years would have emerged in March and early April, all arrived at once. My car windscreen accrued a sparse smattering of ex-insect life, and others reported similar. It is odd to celebrate pointless high-speed fatalities, but they represent an echo of the richer aerial plankton of past decades, and thereby a flicker of hope for the future.
Continue reading...Toxic clouds rise up as lava from Kilauea volcano hits sea – video
White clouds of gas billow into the sky over Hawaii as molten rock from the Kilauea volcano pours into the ocean. People have been warned to stay away from the fumes, which are laced with hydrochloric acid and fine glass particles that can irritate the skin and eyes and cause breathing problems.
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