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Japanese firm to open world’s first robot-run farm
Spread says it will open the fully automated farm with robots handling almost every step of the process
A Japanese company is to open the world’s first “robot farm”, as agriculture joins other sectors of the economy in attempting to fill labour shortages created by the country’s rapidly ageing population.
Spread, a vegetable producer, said industrial robots would carry out all but one of the tasks needed to grow the tens of thousands of lettuces it produces each day at its vast indoor farm in Kameoka, Kyoto prefecture, starting from mid-2017.
Continue reading...The dark side of credit card theft
World Wetlands Day – Banrock Station wetland to benefit from a well earned drink
Reef 2050 Policy Guideline for Decision Makers - Open for public consultation
Lions rediscovered in Ethiopian national park
Local reports were confirmed when a population of previously unknown lions was caught on camera trap in the remote Alatash national park
Conservationists have announced the “amazing discovery” of a previously unknown lion population in a remote north-western region of Ethiopia, confirming local reports with camera trap photographs for the first time.
Lions were spotted in the Alatash national park on Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, lion conservation group Born Free said.
“The confirmation that lions persist in this area is exciting news,” Born Free Foundation said in a statement. “With lion numbers in steep decline across most of the African continent, the discovery of previously unconfirmed populations is hugely important.” Hans Bauer, a lion conservationist from Oxford University who led the tracking expedition in Ethiopia, said there could be up to 200 lions in the area. “Considering the relative ease with which lion signs were observed, it is likely that they are resident throughout Alatash and Dinder [in Sudan],” he said. “On a total surface area of about 10,000 square kilometres, this would mean a population of 100-200 lions for the entire ecosystem, of which 27-54 would be in Alatash,” he said.
2015-16 Solar Towns Programme (Round 2) successful applicants announced
2015-16 Solar Towns Programme (Round 2) successful applicants announced
Wetlands Australia: National Wetlands Update February 2016
Shark eats shark in South Korean aquarium – video
A shark surprises visitors to a South Korean aquarium on Thursday by eating another smaller shark. The footage shows a large sand tiger shark slowly swallowing a smaller banded hound shark over the course of a day, leaving only the tip of the tail visible on Friday
Continue reading...UK families blow twice as much money on food waste as they think, research shows
YouGov study for Sainsbury’s reveals high cost of Britain’s food waste, with the average family of four throwing away the equivalent of 11 meals – or nearly £60 – a month
British families squander twice as much money on food waste each month as they think they do, according to YouGov research commissioned by Sainsbury’s.
Continue reading...Protecting National Historic Sites 2015-16 now open
Bed bugs have developed a resistance to the most widely used insecticide
If neonicotinoids no longer work against the elusive and resilient creatures, bed bugs will continue to thrive despite exterminators’ efforts
Bed bugs have developed a resistance to neonicotinoids, a group of the most widely used insecticides, according to a new study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology.
Products developed over the past few years to control bed bugs combine neonicotinoids, or neonics, with pyrethroids, another class of insecticide.
Continue reading...Australian coalmines are one of riskiest investments in the world – report
Oxford University research also finds Australian, Chinese and US coal-fired power stations are the most vulnerable to environmental dangers
Australian thermal coalmines are some of the riskiest in the world for investors because of their exposure to environmental dangers, according to a report from Oxford University.
The report – which was supported by Norges Bank Investment Management, managers of Norway’s government pension fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund – also found that Australian, Chinese and US coal-fired power stations were the most vulnerable to environmental risks.
Continue reading...Quiz: how well do you know your UK garden birds?
Every year, the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch asks members of the British public to spend an hour during the last weekend of January counting birds in parks and gardens to get a national snapshot of numbers. Ahead of this weekend’s event - which has grown to become the world’s largest garden wildlife survey - can you identify these common garden bird species?
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Sea level rise from ocean warming underestimated, scientists say
Thermal expansion of the oceans as they warm is likely to be twice as large as previously thought, according to German researchers
The amount of sea level rise that comes from the oceans warming and expanding has been underestimated, and could be about twice as much as previously calculated, German researchers have said.
The findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal, suggest that increasingly severe storm surges could be anticipated as a result.
Continue reading...Electric cars to use bus lanes in UK cities
Department for Transport gives £40m fund to eight towns and cities as part of a drive to boost the uptake of cleaner cars
UK cities are to allow electric car drivers to beat congestion by using bus lanes, as part of a government drive to encourage uptake of the cleaner vehicles.
Milton Keynes and Derby will copy similar measures in Norway and allow the cars to drive in miles of bus lanes, while owners in Hackney will be able to plug in at street lights. York drivers will be able to recharge their batteries at a solar-powered park-and-ride and electric car owners in Bristol and Milton Keynes will be allowed to park for free.
Continue reading...Three dead whales wash up on Skegness beach – video
Four sperm whales die after getting stranded in shallow British waters over the weekend. Three of the whales are believed to have died in sea before washing up on Saturday on a beach in Skegness, on the Lincolnshire coast, according to British officials
• Three dead sperm whales wash up on Skegness beach
Three dead sperm whales wash up on Skegness beach
Scientists believe whales are from same pod as one that died on a Norfolk beach and are worried about surviving members
Three dead sperm whales have washed up on a beach near Skegness. Crowds flocked to see the creatures, believed to be from the same pod as one that died on Hunstanton beach in Norfolk, despite efforts to help it back into deeper water after it became stranded.
Scientists are now concerned about any surviving members of the pod, thought to have comprised at least six whales.
Continue reading...Piers Corbyn: the other rebel in the family
Like his brother, physicist and meteorologist Piers Corbyn is a man of revolutionary zeal. His own battle, however, is against all this ‘climate-change nonsense’…
When Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership of the Labour party in September he celebrated in a pub up the road from the Houses of Parliament with a thank you to supporters and a rousing rendition of the Red Flag. On the edge of the impromptu stage that day, beside Len McCluskey of Unite and John McDonnell the future shadow chancellor, was a singular figure singing with particular pride: Piers Corbyn, the new leader’s elder brother, who has, you could say, led a parallel career of stubborn principle to his younger sibling. I was in the euphoric crowd that day, and since then I’ve wondered a bit about the relationship between the brothers, what they have learned from each other. With some of this in mind I called Piers recently and asked if he might like to talk about some of that. He agreed, but typically on the basis that he would happily talk about any subject under the sun – apart from his relationship with Jeremy and the vexed question of how his leadership is going. He shares much of his brother’s mistrust of the press; recently, he suggests, the Independent published an account of an exchange that had taken place over a family Christmas dinner. That wasn’t on. What he will talk about, though, is the thing he has talked about for just about as long as he can remember: the weather.
On this very British basis we met last week in a cafe over the road from his office on Borough High Street in south London. You don’t have to speak to Piers for very long to realise that at least a couple of Corbyn family traits are indelible: the first is that intransigent rasp of a voice with faint traces of west country burr; the second is the sense that life, like politics, is best played as a long game.
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