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Greenland's dark snow - in pictures

The Guardian - Tue, 2015-12-08 23:57

From rapid ice melts to calving glaciers and a snow terrain poked by dark patches, Daniel Beltrá’s stunning images show how rising temperatures and global pollution are literally leaving their dark imprints on Greenland’s pristine landscape. ‘Climate change is having its biggest and most visible impact in Greenland. It is like the canary in a coal mine; what is happening there will affect us all,’ he says

Photographs by Daniel Beltrá/ Courtesy of Catherine Edelman Gallery

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How are planets born?

ABC Science - Tue, 2015-12-08 11:51
GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: Scientists recently witnessed the birth an exoplanet the size of Jupiter. Dr Karl explains how planets are born from the apparent emptiness of space.

The key players at the Paris climate summit

The Guardian - Mon, 2015-12-07 21:44

The draft negotiating text for a global deal is in. These are some of the people who will now decide the outcome of the talks

As ministers from countries around the world fly in for the crunch second week of the UN climate talks in Paris there are still significant areas of disagreement, but also optimism at the talks that a deal can be done. The negotiating text has been pared back to just over 20 pages – a much better position than at the equivalent point at the Copenhagen talks in 2009. Here are some of the key individuals who will decide the outcome of the talks.

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Threatened ecological community listing

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2015-12-07 10:37
The Minister has approved the inclusion of the Eucalypt Woodlands of the Western Australian Wheatbelt in the critically endangered category.
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Green is good for the planet, but it’s no go for reindeer

The Guardian - Sun, 2015-12-06 18:00

Norway’s geography is ideal for hydro power. But clean energy schemes have cut reindeer grazing habitats by up to 40%

It’s cold. Minus 10, 12 perhaps, and getting dark; the butter-fingers of a rising moon evident on the eastern horizon. Ill-equipped (the forecasts were for minus five), my ears start to hurt, and I pull in my hood. By the time you read this it will be colder still. And there are still no reindeer to be seen.

Olav hands me his binoculars and tells me to focus on a hillside about three miles away across the snowy vastness of Norway’s Forollhogna National Park, a tract of ancient, ice-scoured mountains and mire, three hours’ drive inland from Trondheim.

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Michael Bloomberg to head global taskforce on climate change

The Guardian - Fri, 2015-12-04 22:24

Former New York City mayor charged with helping companies gauge exposure to global warming costs

Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, is to head a new global taskforce aimed at highlighting the financial exposure of companies to the risk of climate change.

Investors, insurers, banks and consumers will be provided with more information under plans for a voluntary industry-led code announced by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), the G20 body that monitors and makes recommendations about the financial system, at the COP21 Paris climate change conference on Friday.

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Climate change is threatening the seabirds of St Kilda

The Guardian - Fri, 2015-12-04 21:58

Puffins and kittiwakes on Unesco world heritage site are at risk from warming seas, National Trust for Scotland findings show

The survival of seabirds including puffins and kittiwakes on St Kilda – the island archipelago home to one of the world’s most important seabird populations – is being threatened by climate change, striking new evidence shows.

Naturalists have discovered that the kittiwake, a small migratory gull with ink-black wing tips, is on the brink of disappearing from St Kilda. The remote cluster of Scottish islands in the eastern Atlantic is the UK’s only place with two Unesco world heritage site listings – for its culture and natural history – and one of only 24 sites with a dual listing worldwide.

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Reef Trust Investment Strategy Phase III

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2015-12-04 20:59
The Reef Trust has announced the third phase of investment of $58 million from 2015-2019.
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The contrails conspiracy is not only garbage, it's letting aviation off the hook too | George Monbiot

The Guardian - Fri, 2015-12-04 19:13

The real issue – global warming caused by aircraft emissions – calls on us to act. But focusing on ‘chemtrails’ absolves people of the responsibility to do so

You spend years trying to get people to take an interest in aircraft emissions. Then at last the issue gets picked up – but in the most perverse way possible.

The pollutants spread by planes are a major issue. They make a significant contribution to global warming, yet they are excluded from international negotiations, such as the conference taking place in Paris. As a result, aviation’s expansion is unchecked by concerns about climate change.

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Six mammal species added to the list of threatened species under the EPBC Act

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2015-12-04 08:53
The Minister has approved the addition of Antechinus bellus, Dasyurus viverrinus, Hipposideros inornatus, Petrogale coenensis, Petrogale concinna canescens, Petrogale concinna monastria on to the Threatened Species List effective 3 December 2015.
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Two mammal species removed from the list of threatened species under the EPBC Act

Department of the Environment - Fri, 2015-12-04 08:52
The Minister has approved the removal of Notoryctes caurinus, Notoryctes typhlops from the Threatened Species List effective 3 December 2015.
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Manslaughter charges dropped against two BP employees in Deepwater spill

The Guardian - Fri, 2015-12-04 04:08

US federal prosecutors have ended the government’s pursuit of criminal charges over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 which resulted in 11 deaths

US federal prosecutors have dropped manslaughter charges against two BP employees connected to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster, making it highly unlikely that anyone will ever serve prison time over the far-reaching calamity.

Related: Louisiana five years after BP oil spill: 'It's not going back to normal no time soon'

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Uruguay makes dramatic shift to nearly 95% electricity from clean energy

The Guardian - Thu, 2015-12-03 20:57

In less than 10 years the country has slashed its carbon footprint and lowered electricity costs, without government subsidies. Delegates at the Paris summit can learn much from its success

As the world gathers in Paris for the daunting task of switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, one small country on the other side of the Atlantic is making that transition look childishly simple and affordable.

In less than 10 years, Uruguay has slashed its carbon footprint without government subsidies or higher consumer costs, according to the country’s head of climate change policy, Ramón Méndez.

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National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy

Department of the Environment - Wed, 2015-12-02 23:08
The Strategy sets out how Australia is managing climate risks for the benefit of the community, economy and environment.
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Botswana sells fracking rights in national park

The Guardian - Wed, 2015-12-02 19:53

Licences for more than half of the Kgalagadi transfrontier park, one of Africa’s largest conservation areas, have been granted to drill for shale gas


The Botswana government has quietly sold the rights to frack for shale gas in one of Africa’s largest protected conservation areas, it has emerged.

The Kgalagadi transfrontier park, which spans the border with South Africa, is an immense 36,000 sq km wilderness, home to gemsbok desert antelope, black-maned Kalahari lions and pygmy falcons. But conservationists and top park officials – who were not informed of the fracking rights sale – are now worried about the impact of drilling on wildlife.

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Climate activists stage tattoo protest against BP at Tate Britain – video

The Guardian - Tue, 2015-12-01 20:00

Liberate Tate are the artists’ collective who for five years have campaigned against BP’s sponsorship of the Tate. In this performance at Tate Britain in London, held two days before the opening of the Paris summit on climate change, 35 protesters take part in a project called Birthmark. Protestors tattoo each other with a number that represents the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the year of each person’s birth

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Fly eyes inspire solar panels

ABC Science - Tue, 2015-12-01 14:31
GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: The eye of a 45-million-year-old fly can increase the power output of a solar panel by 10 per cent. Dr Karl is inspired by how an ancient insect helped solve a modern problem.

When I'm sixty-four: world's oldest tracked bird returns to refuge with mate

The Guardian - Tue, 2015-12-01 07:33

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, was spotted at mating ground on Midway Atoll after a year’s absence and is expected to grow her brood, estimated at 36 chicks

The world’s oldest living tracked bird has returned to US soil to lay an egg at the sprightly age of 64.

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, was spotted at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge with a mate, following a year’s absence. It’s expected that Wisdom will use the world’s largest nesting albatross colony, located north-west of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, to raise another chick.

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Japanese whaling fleet to set sail for Antarctic

The Guardian - Mon, 2015-11-30 15:26

Fleet to leave on Tuesday to carry out ‘lethal research’ despite UN court ruling that the hunts are a cover for commercial whaling and have no scientific merit

Japan’s whaling fleet will set sail for the Antarctic on Tuesday despite international pressure to end its annual hunts, as Australia said it was considering sending a vessel to track the fleet in waters which Canberra considers a whale sanctuary.

Related: Japan under fire over decision to resume whaling

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The Australian Cornish Mining Sites - Burra and the Copper Triangle proposed National Heritage Listing

Department of the Environment - Mon, 2015-11-30 15:00
Comments are sought on the proposal to include the Australian Cornish Mining Sites in the National Heritage List. Comments close 15 January 2016.
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