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Simplicity and symbolism in flowers and poems
Wenlock Edge Daisy – daes eage, day’s-eye – a wonderfully simple poetry that has become a complicated symbolic chain-link of love, innocence and death
Hazel catkins are limp, in a still brightness they hang fire, waiting. After the thrashing they got from Storm Doris it’s a wonder they survived, let alone have any pollen left, but from woods and hedges, unimpeded by leaves, the magic dust cloud drifts for wider fertilisation. The pollen record found in peat bogs shows an expansion of hazel during the Mesolithic, 11,000 – 6,000 years ago and the speculation is that travelling people transported hazel nuts, so that now, catkins dangle from here to the Caucasus and Algeria.
Related: Country diary: Wenlock Edge: The lesser celandine, the voice of spring
Continue reading...Australia placed on El Niño 'watch' as weather bureau puts chance at 50% for 2017
Analysis shows steady warming in the Pacific Ocean and that Australia could be in for a warmer and drier year
Australia could be heading into another El Niño year according to new analysis by the Bureau of Meteorology, which found the chance Australia would be affected by the phenomenon in 2017 had increased to 50%.
Six of the eight models used by Australian climatologists to predict El Niño and La Niña events indicate the El Niño threshold could be reached by July, while seven indicate a steady warming in the Pacific Ocean over the next six months.
Continue reading...Penalties and policies: What shook environmental markets in February
Coalition’s “clean coal” plan to power Gina, Clive, Adani in Galilee basin
Battery price war sees Tesla Powerwall 2 beaten even before first deliveries
Herbert Smith Freehills advises Infrastructure Capital Group on the acquisition of Bald Hills Wind Farm
Aquion Energy, Schneider Electric, EIWAT Solar and RE-ENERGY Partner with Kyushu Electric Power Company to Construct “EIWAT STORAGE I” 122kW Solar and Storage System
Car sharing plan launched for Tesla and other EVs
Opal Solar named as major sponsor for NRL premiers, Cronulla Sharks
Spain to spend on renewables, India expands solar plan
ENGIE and Schneider Electric Collaborate to Digitise the Energy Sector
Infrastructure Capital Group acquires Bald Hills Wind Farm
Coal hit as China’s energy transition gathers pace
Tagged animals at risk from hunters and nature-lovers
British people unaware of pollution levels in the air they breathe – study
‘Citizen science’ project launched as FoE survey indicates population outside London overestimates air quality
People across the UK are underestimating the impact of the air pollution crisis in their local areas, according to a new survey.
Almost two thirds of respondents said they were concerned about the issue of air pollution, but only one in 10 said they thought the air they breathe is bad.
Continue reading...Neoen aims for 1GW wind, solar by 2020 after Hornsdale 3 financing
Climate pollution rising: Turnbull, Frydenberg failing
Will SpaceX be ready to fly tourists around the moon?
Rising temperatures are boon to exotic invaders
Plants from semi-tropical climes are overtaking native British species and choking habitat as they flourish in warmer conditions
A half-degree increase in the average temperature in September and October in East Anglia this century has made an already troublesome plant invader even more of a nuisance. While the change in climate has been hardly noticeable to humans, it has made an enormous difference to the floating pennywort, Hydrocotyle ranunculoide, which already threatens to choke slow-moving rivers and the Broads.
The extension of warmer weather into autumn has give this semi-tropical South American plant the opportunity to produce viable seeds for the first time enabling it to spread even faster.
Continue reading...Reform of EU carbon trading scheme agreed
Member states approve changes, including €12bn innovation fund, to emissions plan for cleaner technology and pollution cuts
An overhaul of the EU’s flagship trading scheme for cutting carbon emissions by European industries has been approved by the member states.
The agreement to reform the emissions trading system comes after almost two years’ of discussions but just two weeks after the European parliament voted in favour of a new directive.
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