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SSEE ACT Chapter News

Newsletters ACT - Tue, 2012-11-20 04:21
SSEE ACT Chapter News
Categories: Newsletters ACT

World's most expensive coffee tainted by 'horrific' civet abuse

The Guardian - Tue, 2012-11-20 00:36
Asian palm civets are force-fed a debilitating diet of coffee berries to create Kopi Luwak, say animal welfare groups

It's the world's most expensive coffee and is made from faeces, but connoisseur drinkers should feel most squeamish about the "horrific" abuse that mars its production process, animal welfare groups have claimed.

Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee, is created mainly in Indonesia from beans of coffee berries that are fed to Asian palm civets – small, cat-like creatures found in south-east Asia.

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Categories: Around The Web

SSEE Victoria update

Newsletters VIC - Sun, 2012-11-11 11:01
SSEE Victoria update
Categories: Newsletters VIC

The week in wildlife – in pictures

The Guardian - Sat, 2012-11-10 01:34
Sensitive crocodiles, playing elephants and a Brazilian armadillo feature in this week's pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

'Humane' fishing net wins Dyson award

The Guardian - Fri, 2012-11-09 02:16
Dan Watson has devised a system based on a series of escape rings for fish, which can be fitted to a fisherman's trawler net

A young British designer has won a prestigious international award for creating a "humane" net to make fishing more sustainable by preventing small fish from being trapped.

Dan Watson devised a system based on a series of escape rings for fish – which can be fitted to a fisherman's trawler net – in response to the problem of overfishing and the controversial and wasteful practice of throwing away healthy and edible fish or other creatures as so-called bycatch.

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Categories: Around The Web

World's rarest whale seen for first time after New Zealand beaching

The Guardian - Tue, 2012-11-06 20:01
Two skeletons now known to be spade-toothed beaked whales were misidentified by conservationists in 2010

The spade-toothed beaked whale is so rare that nobody has seen one alive, but scientists have proof the species still exists.

Two skeletons were identified as belonging to the species after a 17-foot whale and her calf beached themselves in New Zealand in 2010. Scientists hope the discovery will provide insights into the species and into ocean ecosystems.

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Categories: Around The Web

Involved with Environmental Approvals in QLD? – Read more about our must see presentation

Newsletters QLD - Mon, 2012-11-05 07:26
Involved with Environmental Approvals in QLD? – Read more about our must see presentation
Categories: Newsletters QLD

How can you get rid of clothes moths?

The Guardian - Sat, 2012-11-03 09:00
Mothballs, lavender bags, cedar wood… what weaponry can help you win the war against moths?

When you look at the size of a clothes moth – and sometimes I look at the size of a clothes moth five times a day prior to mashing it violently against a wall/carpet/treasured coat – it seems extraordinary how useless the human race is at killing this most destructive of pests. Without difficulty, people wipe out badgers, cats, other human beings. How hard can it be to kill a scrap of animated dust that lives on old sweat and cardigans?

True, weaponry has advanced, a little, since I was first infested. Two decades ago, when a soft Nicole Farhi cardigan emerged for its first outing with ragged holes already dotting the moth-favoured breast region, the best on offer was mothballs and those bits of amusingly-shaped cedar that are as effective at combating moths as, say, snowballs would be at wiping out the Taliban.

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Categories: Around The Web

Why wet wipes are wreaking havoc on sewers

The Guardian - Fri, 2012-10-26 22:27
Increasingly fussy bathroom habits are directly to blame for clogged pipes and human waste bubbling up into our streets and homes. Plus 10 things you should never flush down your toilet

Time was when British bottoms were built to withstand the crinkliest, shiniest toilet paper available, and in some cases even to enjoy it. But there has been a fundamental softening in recent years, seen in a growing preference not only for quilted loo roll, but now for wet wipes. The musician Will.i.Am is one leading exponent of damp bottom-wiping. The consequences for our drains, though, are disastrous.

"If you swill a piece of toilet roll around in some water, it takes seconds for it to disintegrate," explains Simon Evans from Thames Water. "Wet wipes should never be put down drains, because they don't break down – even if the packaging says they are 'biodegradable' or 'flushable'. Only human waste and loo roll should go down our sewers."

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Categories: Around The Web

Talking beluga whale named Noc is revealed

The Guardian - Tue, 2012-10-23 18:00
Beluga whale kept at US research foundation learned how to make human sounds that fooled divers, according to study

A Beluga whale named Noc learned to warble in a human voice that was so convincing it fooled a diver into thinking someone was shouting at him to get out of the water, US researchers have revealed.

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Categories: Around The Web

SSEE Victoria update

Newsletters VIC - Mon, 2012-10-22 01:16
SSEE Victoria update
Categories: Newsletters VIC

Climate Science seminar October 4th

Newsletters VIC - Wed, 2012-09-26 01:30
Climate Science seminar October 4th
Categories: Newsletters VIC

How will climate change affect food production?

The Guardian - Wed, 2012-09-19 21:20
This Q&A is part of the Guardian's ultimate climate change FAQ

See all questions and answers
Read about the project

Food is one of society's key sensitivities to climate. A year of not enough or too much rainfall, a hot spell or cold snap at the wrong time, or extremes, like flooding and storms, can have a significant effect on local crop yields and livestock production. While modern farming technologies and techniques have helped to reduce this vulnerability and boost production, the impact of recent droughts in the USA, China and Russia on global cereal production highlight a glaring potential future vulnerability.

There is some evidence that climate change is already having a measurable affect on the quality and quantity of food produced globally. But this is small when compared with the significant increase in global food production that has been achieved over the past few decades. Isolating the influence of climatic change from all the other trends is difficult, but one recent Stanford University study found that increases in global production of maize and wheat since 1980 would have been about 5% higher were it not for climate change.

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Categories: Around The Web

Arctic sea ice melt 'may bring harsh winter to Europe'

The Guardian - Fri, 2012-09-14 20:52
The unprecedented loss of polar sea ice may lead to 'wild extremes' in the UK and northern Europe, say researchers

The record loss of Arctic sea ice this summer may mean a cold winter for the UK and northern Europe. The region has been prone to bad winters after summers with very low sea ice, such as 2011 and 2007, said Jennifer Francis, a researcher at Rutgers University.

"We can't make predictions yet … [but] I wouldn't be surprised to see wild extremes this winter," Francis told the Guardian.

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Categories: Around The Web

Don't miss the SSEE Qld September seminar

Newsletters QLD - Thu, 2012-09-13 22:55
Don't miss the SSEE Qld September seminar
Categories: Newsletters QLD

Scottish fish farmers use record amounts of parasite pesticides

The Guardian - Mon, 2012-09-10 23:29
Farmers have been forced to increase amount of chemicals as the sea lice parasite becomes resistant to treatment

Scottish fish farmers have been forced to use record amounts of highly toxic pesticides to combat underwater parasites that prey on salmon, raising fears of significant damage to the marine environment.

Data released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) shows a 110% increase in the use of chemicals to treat sea lice in the past four years, mainly because the parasite is becoming resistant to treatment. During that same period, however, salmon production has increased only by 22%, to 158,000 tonnes.

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Categories: Around The Web

SSEE Victoria update

Newsletters VIC - Mon, 2012-09-10 02:39
SSEE Victoria update
Categories: Newsletters VIC

Yangtze finless porpoise: China's national treasure disappearing fast

The Guardian - Fri, 2012-09-07 16:00
At their current rate of decline, these ancient creatures are set to follow the baiji dolphin into extinction in 10-15 years

It's been an hour and the group of volunteers aboard the rickety fishing boat are still yet to spot a Yangtze finless porpoise, known as jiangzhu or "river pig". Thirty years ago, when they numbered 2,000, the mammals could be seen from the shore here dancing on Dongting Lake in the sludge-coloured waves. Now there are about 85 jiangzhu here. As Xu Yaping, the patrol's chief, peers through the haze, and coal barges and dredgers churn the lake, the chance of encountering this ancient creature seems remote.

The jiangzhu's survival is not guaranteed. Since the official extinction of the baiji, a river dolphin, in 2007, the porpoise is the only cetacean inhabiting the Yangtze River and two connecting freshwater lakes, Dongting and Poyang, China's largest. It's estimated there are around 1,200 jiangzhu living in the wild – two-thirds less than a decade earlier. The species is decreasing at a rate of 6.4% a year, making it rarer than China's national treasure, the giant panda.

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Categories: Around The Web

'Vast reservoir' of methane locked beneath Antarctic ice sheet

The Guardian - Thu, 2012-08-30 03:00
Scientists say as much as 4bn tonnes of the potent greenhouse gas could be released into the atmosphere if ice melts

A vast reservoir of the potent greenhouse gas methane may be locked beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, a study suggests.

Scientists say the gas could be released into the atmosphere if enough of the ice melts away, adding to global warming.

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Categories: Around The Web

Argentinian politicians unveil plan to shoot seagulls that attack whales

The Guardian - Wed, 2012-08-29 10:28
Birds regularly peck the mammals, then feed on the open wounds – behaviour environmentalists have blamed on humans

Saving the whales is something Argentinians take so seriously that authorities in Patagonia have launched a 100-day plan to shoot seagulls that have learned to attack the big mammals as they surface to breathe.

Environmentalists say the plan is misguided. They say humans are the real problem, creating so much garbage that the gull population has exploded.

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Categories: Around The Web

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