Feed aggregator

Poultry group which sold out-of-date meat to supermarkets may close three factories

Nine hundred jobs are under threat at three poultry plants belonging to 2 Sisters Food Group, the UK’s largest supplier of supermarket chicken, which has been dogged by a controversy over food standards.

The potential closure of two of the firm’s West Midlands factories in Smethwick and Wolverhampton, plus a third in Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, follow a nightmare year for the company, which has included the closing of a further site in Smethwick as well as a Guardian and ITV undercover investigation that prompted production to be suspended for five weeks last autumn at the group’s West Bromwich plant.

Continue reading...

CSIRO researchers use world-first genetic analysis to estimate population, but believe numbers could be as high as 12,800

About 5,500 great white sharks are cruising in the waters off Australia’s east coast, new research has revealed.

For the first time, the CSIRO has been able to put a number on the size of the white shark population using world-first genetic analysis.

It estimates there are about 750 adults living in waters east of Victoria’s southern coast, up to central Queensland and across to New Zealand.

Taking juvenile sharks into account, researchers believe the total east coast population sits at 5,460 – but could be as high as 12,800.

Related: Shark attacks in Australia: how common are they really?

Continue reading...

Scientists may finally understand the mechanism behind solar flares., which can play havoc with technology on Earth.

Australians import millions of flowers for Valentine's Day. Let's consider some ways to be eco-friendly. Jennifer Lavers, Research Scientist, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania Fiona Kerslake, Research Fellow in viticulture and fermentation, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

From sweet oranges to bitter lemons, all citrus fruit came from the Himalayas millions of years ago, say scientists.

Plastic waste is building up in the supposedly pristine wilderness of the Norwegian Arctic, scientists say.

Plastic waste is increasing in the supposedly pristine wilderness of the Arctic.

A new study finds strong agreement that flood risks in central and western Europe are rising due to global warming.

As humans continue to emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, the world continues to warm. We see that warming everywhere – in the atmosphere, in the oceans, with rising sea levels, and melting ice. But while we know conclusively that humans are causing the warming, an equally important question is, “so what?” Really, we want to know the consequences of warming so that we can make informed decisions about what to do about it. We really have only three choices: mitigate, adapt, or ignore and suffer the consequences.

A very new study was just published that helps answer this question of “so what?” The research was conducted by lead author Lorenzo Alfieri (European Commission – Joint Research Centre, Italy), Richard Betts (University of Exeter and Met Office, UK), and their colleagues.

Continue reading...

New research has used genetic analysis in a world-first effort to accurately estimate Australian and New Zealand white shark numbers. Rich Hillary, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Russ Bradford, Project leader and researcher, CSIRO Toby Patterson, Senior research scientist, CSIRO Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Researchers find that the population has increased in the north east and stopped shrinking nationwide.

Peter Jones was awarded a Rainfall Excellence Award by the Bureau of Meteorology for his work collecting precipitation in Tasmania for over 50 years.

Sandy, Bedfordshire: It should have been hibernating, but there it was, bashing its head against a cold window. Something had to be done

It is a curious fact that the most beautiful parts of a butterfly are also the least palatable. When I lifted a log from the woodpile, the eye of a peacock in an insect wing beneath looked back. It was a sail without a ship, a cover without a book. The wing was still fired with fresh colours, as lustrous as a birthday balloon and just as nutritious. The thick body that had been provisioned with sweetness to sit out the winter in darkness had gone.

The day before, another peacock, inadvertently transported indoors in the log basket, was hours away from cremation when it woke into living room summer. I did not see it fly up to the sunlit window but heard a loud thrumming from behind the blind. There it was, improbably animated out of season, bashing its head incessantly against a cold window. How could it understand that the golden orb beyond was a false god, offering only frost and ice?

Continue reading...

Concerns raised over weakened regulations on imports in potential post-Brexit trade deals

Livestock raised for food in the US are dosed with five times as much antibiotic medicine as farm animals in the UK, new data has shown, raising questions about rules on meat imports under post-Brexit trade deals.

The difference in rates of dosage rises to at least nine times as much in the case of cattle raised for beef, and may be as high as 16 times the rate of dosage per cow in the UK. There is currently a ban on imports of American beef throughout Europe, owing mainly to the free use of growth hormones in the US.

Continue reading...

Elon Musk hails a "phenomenal year" for Tesla, but it is still draining cash as it looks to its next EV model, and extracts itself from production hell on the last.

Australian homes and businesses continue to install solar at a cracking pace in January, adding another 111MW to the 2017 total of more than 1.25GW.

Energy Transition Hub is pleased to launch the OpenNEM project with the ‘alpha’ release of our website and our new widget in RenewEconomy.

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu capable of doubling its wind energy capacity by 2027 and increasing its solar capacity six-fold.

South Australia can show the rest of the nation how to build a 100 per cent renewable energy system to makes people's lives better.

SolarReserve's flagship solar tower and storage project is still falling short of design targets. Does it deserve public money?

Never mind the Roadster in space, Elon Musk says the Tesla big battery in South Australia has exceeded performance targets "significantly," a success that has put a rocket under sales of the company’s commercial-scale Powerpacks.