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Amazing mini animals – in pictures
David Yeo’s photography places naturally small species alongside animals that have been selectively bred to be tiny and cute, opening a troubling ethical debate
Continue reading...Graph of the Day: What we need, what we’re getting
BYD hones focus on Australia home battery market
The NEG will reduce competition, and that’s not good for prices
Coalition energy target may require a “go slow” on rooftop solar
Construction of Kennedy Energy Park underway, as CEFC tips in another $94m
Surge in eye injuries as Melbourne magpies go on attack spree
Hospital issues warning as ‘extraordinary’ spate of bird-inflicted injuries include a penetrated eye that required surgery
A penetrated eye that needed surgery is just one of an “extraordinary” spate of magpie-inflicted injuries in Melbourne, and one hospital has issued a warning about the swooping birds.
The number of eye injuries caused by the bird has risen significantly, according to the emergency director of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear hospital, Dr Carmel Crock.
Continue reading...Rising dragon: China's carbon market exposes Australia's energy paralysis
Coalition’s energy policy hinges on tricky wordplay about coal’s role
Stonehenge builders 'ate food from Scotland'
JinkoSolar p-type multi-crystalline silicon solar cells achieve new world record in conversion efficiency again
Lights Out! The dark side of demand management
Hang ten (decades): Walter Munk, inventor of the surf forecast, turns 100
Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers
Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say
The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists.
Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society.
Continue reading...CliFi – A new way to talk about climate change | John Abraham
If you’re not familiar with the new genre of climate fiction, you might be soon.
Cli-Fi refers to “climate fiction;” it is a term coined by journalist Dan Bloom. These are fictional books that somehow or someway bring real climate change science to the reader. What is really interesting is that Cli-Fi books often present real science in a credible way. They become fun teaching tools. There are some really well known authors such as Paolo Bacigalupi and Margaret Atwood among others. A list of other candidate Cli-Fi novels was provided by Sarah Holding in the Guardian.
What makes a Cli-Fi novel good? Well in my opinion, it has to have some real science in it. And it has to get the science right. Second, it has to be fun to read. When done correctly, Cli-Fi can connect people to their world; it can help us understand what future climate may be like, or what current climate effects are.
Continue reading...NSW town aims for 100 per cent renewable energy
Banded stilts fly hundreds of kilometres to lay eggs that are over 50% of their body mass
Government set to face fresh legal challenge over air pollution crisis
Legal NGO ClientEarth to take the government back to court if it fails to set out a new range of measures to tackle Britain’s toxic air
Environmental campaigners are set to take the government back to court over what they say are ministers’ repeated failings to deal with the UK’s air pollution crisis.
ClientEarth, which has already won two court battles against the government, has written a legal letter demanding that the environment secretary Michael Gove sets out a range of new measures to address air pollution which contributes to the deaths of 40,000 people across the UK each year.
Continue reading...Why Turnbull’s plan could be disaster for renewables, climate, prices
Country diary: the air is heavy with the scent of apples
St Dominic, Tamar Valley Black Rocks and Crimson Queens and Green Chisel pears – colourful fruit with colourful names on show at Cotehele’s Apple Day
Sheltered from rain, inside the display tent at Cotehele’s Apple Day, the perfume of juice and ripe fruit pervades the damp air. Examples of different varieties are pinned to a board and Mary and James (my sister and brother-in-law) have laid out a lavish array from their orchard of local varieties, gathered on rare dry days during recent weeks.
A basket of pears, decorated with swags of rose hips and sloes, includes the large Aston Town (originally found in a pub garden at Launceston), Green Chisel (possibly the Hastings pear), green sweats, various harvest pears, grey and red Catterns, all awaiting the results of genetic tests to confirm their identities.
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