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Giant stick insects found on Lord Howe Island a genetic match for 'extinct' phasmids
Scientists confirm creatures discovered on Ball’s Pyramid in 2001 are the same species rats were believed to have killed off a century earlier
Scientists have confirmed that giant insects found on a rocky outcrop off Lord Howe Island are a genetic match for the island’s stick insects that were believed to have gone extinct almost 100 years earlier.
The species were assumed to be one and the same. However significant morphological differences between the Lord Howe Island stick insects collected in the early 1900s and stored in museum collections, and the phasmids discovered in 2001 on Ball’s Pyramid (a remnant volcano about 23km off the main island), created a suspicion the latter could be a related species – rather than the original back from the dead.
Continue reading...Farm animals can eat insects and algae to prevent deforestation
WWF says alternatives to industrially farmed animal feed must be developed to stop biodiversity loss
Farm animals could be fed on insects and algae, potentially preventing significant amounts of deforestation and water and energy waste, according to environmental campaigners.
“We’re a bit squeamish about eating insects in the UK,” said WWF’s food policy manager Duncan Williamson at the Extinction and Livestock conference in London. “But we can feed them to our animals. We are going to need animal feed for the foreseeable future, but algae and insects are an alternative to the current system.”
What do peace and dynamite have in common?
'Supreme wake-up call': Prince Charles urges action on ocean pollution
Prince says catastrophic hurricanes are consequence of climate change and welcomes growing awareness of plastic pollution
The world’s oceans are at last receiving the attention they deserve, as the scale of plastic pollution is finally becoming clear, the Prince of Wales has said, hailing this growing awareness as the first step to saving the marine environment.
Prince Charles said it had taken years for the enormity of the problem to emerge, but promised to make it a key priority of his campaigning, alongside rainforests.
Continue reading...We want to make our roads safer for everyone – especially cyclists
Response: an opinion piece by Laura Laker accused me of hypocrisy, but our review examining the law and cycling aims to make the roads safer for everyone
Laura Laker accuses me of “headline-grabbing hypocrisy” in relation to the safety of cyclists. That’s quite an extreme reaction to my announcement of a review whose specific purpose is to improve the safety of all road users, especially in relation to cyclists.
As I made clear, the review will address two key issues. The first is legal: whether the law is defective in the case of bodily harm or death from a cyclist, and specifically whether, as the rule of law demands, there is an adequate remedy here. Our aim is to complete this work early in the new year.
Continue reading...100 Women: Where are the female Nobel Prize winners?
Government 'failed to clean up air'
Daring to Doubt
Food and farming 'needs total rethink'
'Alarming' rise in Queensland tree clearing as 400,000 hectares stripped
Deputy premier brands Australia ‘deforestation hotspot’ after a 45% jump in her state’s reef catchment clearing
Queensland underwent a dramatic surge in tree clearing – with the heaviest losses in Great Barrier Reef catchments – in the year leading up to the Palaszczuk government’s thwarted bid to restore protections.
Figures released on Thursday showed a 33% rise in clearing to almost 400,000 hectares in 2015-16, meaning Queensland now has two-thirds the annual rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Continue reading...Australia adds 97MW rooftop solar in September, set for record 1GW in 2017
Invitation to comment on listing assessment for Notomys aquilo (northern hopping-mouse)
Vast animal-feed crops to satisfy our meat needs are destroying planet
WWF report finds 60% of global biodiversity loss is down to meat-based diets which put huge strain on Earth’s resources
The ongoing global appetite for meat is having a devastating impact on the environment driven by the production of crop-based feed for animals, a new report has warned.
The vast scale of growing crops such as soy to rear chickens, pigs and other animals puts an enormous strain on natural resources leading to the wide-scale loss of land and species, according to the study from the conservation charity WWF.
Continue reading...Country diary: strange spiders and help from the web
Crook, County Durham Within a day of uploading a picture of what I thought was one species of harvestman, I was told it was a more interesting alien
We may be living in a golden age for natural historians. The old naturalists’ field clubs, rooted in the Victorian passion for collecting and sharing knowledge of flora and fauna, may be in decline, but, thanks to social media, it has never been easier to correspond with a helpful expert when you need one.
Post a picture of, say, an unfamiliar spider on the internet and it’s likely that someone out there will identify it for you.
Continue reading...Melbourne's Yarra river deadliest for drowning deaths in Australia
Men in late 20s and early 30s with alcohol or drugs in their system the most frequent victims of fatal river drowning
Risk-taking young men who drown trying to swim Melbourne’s Yarra river are making it the deadliest inland river per metre in Australia.
New data shows alcohol, drugs, tourists and young men who dare each other to swim the river are contributing to regular drownings.
Continue reading...CS Energy signs 10 year agreement with Kennedy Energy Park
IEA: Renewable electricity set to grow 40% globally by 2022
Stunning new low for solar PV as even IEA hails “age of solar”
Samsung chosen for new 30MW battery storage facility in S.A.
Australia’s first solar farm co-located with wind park begins production
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