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Warming world harming insects' reproduction, says study
Primate tool-use: Chimpanzees make drinking sticks
Sandpipers go the extra 8,000 miles to have as much sex as possible
Small birds were observed travelling to as many as 24 different breeding sites in Alaska within six weeks, further than flying from Paris to Moscow
A bird smaller than a city pigeon has been recorded flying 13,000km (8,000 miles) in just one month to have sex with as many females as possible
In behaviour never witnessed before, male pectoral sandpipers were observed travelling to as many as 24 different “breeding sites” in northern Alaska within a single season, a team of scientists wrote in the journal Nature.
Continue reading...New candidate for 'missing element' in Earth's core
Chimp drinking culture caught on video
UK throwing away £13bn of food each year, latest figures show
Waste and recycling advisory body says 4.4m tonnes of household food waste thrown away in 2015 could have been eaten
UK households binned £13bn worth of food in 2015 that could have been eaten, according to new figures which suggest that progress in reducing the national food waste mountain has stalled.
Despite concerted efforts to reduce food waste through the entire supply chain, a new national update from the waste and recycling advisory body Wrap revealed that an estimated 7.3m tonnes of household food waste was thrown away in 2015 – up from 7m tonnes in 2012.
Continue reading...Fracking concerns must be listened to | Letters
As public health researchers we noted your article on fracking (Friends of the Earth ticked off over claims in anti-fracking leaflet, 4 January) and wish to highlight the following: fracking operations involve pumping millions of litres of water containing fracking fluids underground and a small percentage of wastewater contains returned fracking fluids. Estimates vary depending on geological conditions but recent research suggests typically 4-8%. It is well established in peer-reviewed studies and government reports that fracturing fluids and wastewater have contaminated ground and surface waters.
An early peer-reviewed study on chemicals in fracking fluids found 25% could cause cancer and mutations, 37% could affect the endocrine system, 40-50% could affect the brain/nervous system, kidneys, immune system and cardiovascular systems. More recent studies support these findings, including a systematic evaluation that examined 240 fracking substances and found evidence suggesting 43% were linked to reproductive toxicity and 40% to developmental toxicity.
Continue reading...Desperate exodus of the climate refugees | Letters
In the last six years, some 140 million people have been forced to move because of climate-related disasters (Mongolian herders fly steppe blighted by climate extremes and social change, 5 January). Climate change is driving long-term environmental damage and sudden catastrophes, presenting a global long-term threat to human security. According to the UN, by mid-century, one in 30 people could be displaced, many as a result of climate change. Existing global inequalities are exacerbated by the injustice of climate change which severely affects the poorest and most vulnerable, those who have contributed least to the climate crisis. Although climate change and enforced migration are increasingly linked, those displaced have no legal standing under existing international refugee and asylum law.
Record-breaking increases in global temperature mask the unequal impact of planetary warming. Temperature increases in Mongolia have risen by more than double the global average over the past century. Elsewhere, in Somalia, Darfur, Syria and across sub-Saharan Africa, the chronic effects of drought, water scarcity and agricultural crises in rural areas no longer able to sustain their peoples have driven hundreds of thousands of migrants into cities and across borders. Safe haven is provided overwhelmingly by other poor countries, whilst richer countries respond by building walls and fences and a political debate that is toxic and often racist.
Continue reading...Can Facebook help you make your home more sustainable?
Social media might help you navigate the confusing world of sustainability. ra2studio/shutterstock.comFacebook has always been controversial, with many users worrying about how the information they post might be used. Lately, the social media behemoth has also been criticised for facilitating the spread of fake news.
But over the past 18 months I have learned that the technology of Facebook groups offers an effective way for people to collaborate on common interests – in my case, on enhancing the sustainability of our homes and lifestyles.
As part of a research project, I created a public Facebook group where members initially discussed and decoded a particularly sophisticated space-heating heat pump (otherwise known on mainland Australia as a reverse-cycle air conditioner). Predictably, our discussions quickly expanded to include other aspects of home economics, aesthetics, comfort and sustainability.
Today the group is called My Efficient Electric Home. Membership has doubled over the past two months. It now includes more than 550 people, from every state and territory of Australia as well as New Zealand and other countries.
It’s global, but it can quickly become local. The other day a member living near Cairns, Queensland, posed some questions about solar panels and tropical swimming pools. Shortly thereafter another member, also from around Cairns, chimed in with (hopefully!) the answer.
My efficient electric homeOur stated purpose is for group members to discuss methods of space heating, water heating and cooking using electricity rather than fossil gas or wood. Our focus on electricity recognises a future in which renewable energy is the fuel of choice, whether it is sourced from a central or neighbourhood grid, or generated and stored at home.
The Electric Home of the Future, as envisaged in the past.
Popular Mechanics Magazine, 1939
As a “public” group, millions of Facebook users from anywhere on the planet can find us and passively observe our discussions. For those who wish to engage more actively, becoming a member (by making a request to the group admin) allows users to ask or answer questions, post information and receive notifications about our group’s activity. Some of our members belong to dozens of Facebook groups, but for others, like me, My Efficient Electric Home was their very first.
Ours isn’t the only internet group to discuss sustainability and energy efficiency. Various online resources such as the Whirlpool forum have been around for years, covering topics ranging from computer software to travel. Moderated sites such as the Alternative Technology Association and Choice have covered home-sustainability topics.
And of course we can’t forget the hundreds of comments left by readers of my previous home-energy-related articles right here on The Conversation. However, an attraction of Facebook over simpler message boards is Facebook’s wide range of features.
How it’s workingMembers of our Facebook group can upload photos, videos, data files of energy use or generation, research reports, manuals for appliances, energy bills and letters from utility companies, links to other sites, relevant news articles, and more.
Thinking of switching off gas?
Tim Forcey
Facebook’s technique of “rolling-up” and “cascading-down” discussion threads means that topics of less interest quickly sink from immediate view (although they are never lost). Months-old discussions are easily resurrected whenever a member adds a new comment or question. For example, subjects such as space-heating can lie dormant during the summer months, but become front-of-mind when winter again approaches.
Unlike some other discussion forums, we encourage commercial contacts and transactions (which are eventually taken offline by the customer and vendor), and subsequent feedback. I recently mined the data available within our group and found that our discussions may have influenced more than A$400,000 worth of member purchases. And we can only guess at the number of other onlooking householders who have been influenced by our publicly-visible discussions.
That said, not every discussion thread at our site centres on commercial transactions or choosing which appliances to buy. Researchers have surveyed our group to gain insight into our membership’s views and opinions. Some members are encouraging others to use their home experiences to join in pushing governments toward more progressive policies and regulations, ranging from removing disincentives for using heat pumps to limiting woodsmoke particulate pollution.
Making sense of sustainabilityMany people find it difficult to source reliable information about improving their home’s comfort or reducing their environmental footprint. Every person and every home is different – often there are no simple answers to people’s needs and wants.
As the pace of technological change accelerates, the information available on government and other websites, although originally posted with good intent, quickly loses touch with the current market and may even mislead. The relative prices of gas and electricity can quickly change. Efficient home-energy technologies that have been proven overseas can suddenly appear on the Australian market.
For all its alleged malign influence in the world, information posted to Facebook is undeniably fast, topical and current. Groups like ours might be a useful way for people to find the information they need.
Tim Forcey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
Obama says shift to green energy is 'irreversible' despite Trump
Obama puts pressure on Trump to adhere to US climate change strategy
The US president has been writing for academic journals to pre-empt arguments Trump or Republicans are likely to use to roll back his key accomplishments
Barack Obama called the adoption of clean energy in the US “irreversible” on Monday, putting pressure on his successor, Donald Trump, not to back away from a core strategy to fight climate change.
Obama, penning an opinion article in the journal Science, sought to frame the argument in a way that might appeal to the president-elect: in economic terms. He said the fact that the cost and polluting power of energy had dropped at the same time proved that fighting climate change and spurring economic growth were not mutually exclusive.
Continue reading...US plans to save polar bears are toothless, says climate scientist
US strategy offers no direct action to address threat of greenhouse gases on decline of sea ice habitat
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has released its plan for the recovery of threatened polar bears, acknowledging it will take no direct action to address the primary threat of greenhouse gases on the decline of sea ice habitat.
Related: This is the polar bear capital of the world, but the snow has gone
Continue reading...Mother-baby bonding insight revealed
Wildscapes and confronting ourselves
Invitation to comment on Draft Recovery Plan for the Grey-headed Flying-fox
Rebirth of a native woodland
Windermere, Lake District The wood is coming back to life, aided by a man on a mission
Not everyone’s idea of a retirement present, perhaps, but three years ago Hamish Ross bought himself a wood to the east of Windermere, roughly triangular and bordered by a dry-stone wall. “The first thing we did was fix the walls and put up a deer-proof fence,” he said, leading me through the new gate. “They’d been getting in for decades – eaten everything. The under-storey had completely disappeared. Now, we get excited about brambles.”
As we walked along, he pointed out the line of 10 conifers he’d kept for shelter – all that remained of an acre of neglected Sitka spruce and larch. With the dense tangle gone, light could once more filter onto the ancient woodland floor, helping the 900 indigenous saplings that Hamish has planted over the past couple of years. Reaching to a couple of metres high, they were woven through the centre of the wood amid mature trees and fallen giants. An assortment of buds – elegant orange beech tips, the red bulbs of lime, fat nut-coloured horse chestnut and downy crab apple – adorned their branches. This winter, he will be planting 350 more.
Continue reading...Drones will feed the world : Analyst
Searching for a babbler, and life on a cattle station
Owls brave the trenches in search of mice: Country diary 100 years ago
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 9 January 1917
Several correspondents in France have referred to the owls which find the trenches such profitable mouseries that they hunt by day. The latest note on the subject comes from one of our south coast camps, where a light brown owl – probably a barn owl – found daylight sport anything but peaceful. The lads who were watching it were not the trouble, but a number of gulls resented its presence, “and flew excitedly around it,” though apparently they did not venture to attack the unusual-looking bird. Then a rook, no doubt attracted by the calls of the gulls, came along, flying above the owl. It darted upon the mouse-hunter, striking it on the back with its beak, and down fell the owl. “We saw it no more,” writes my correspondent, but it does not follow that the owl was slain; a rook coming down with wings half-closed, “stooping” like a falcon, is certainly a formidable foe, but the feathers on an owl’s back are wonderfully thick and soft, and would act as an elastic cushion protecting the body.
A small bird which “seems to fly in jumps” has puzzled the same correspondent; it is black and white with “a black boomerang band on its white throat” and white streaks – outer feathers – on its tail. Undoubtedly our friend the pied wagtail; many of these birds are now wintering on our southern shores.
Continue reading...How different cities responded to December's winter smog
Paris introduced free public transport; Madrid restricted cars; Londoners were advised to take less exercise
Winter smog returned to our cities in December. Modern smog is less visible than Victorian pea-soupers but a thin brown layer could be seen on the horizon as still weather trapped the air pollution.
Paris had ten days of smog at the start of the month; the worst pollution for a decade. Emergency actions to reduce the health impacts included free public transport, reduced traffic speeds, lorry bans in the city centre, a ban on wood burning and four days of alternating bans on cars with odd or even number plates.
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