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Census finds 27% increase in number of endangered lions found in their only habitat in the world – the Gir forest of Gujarat

Wildlife experts have welcomed census figures showing India’s population of endangered Asiatic lions has increased in the last five years in the western state of Gujarat.

Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel said officials counted 523 lions, up 27% from the last census conducted in 2010 in Gir sanctuary, the last habitat for the big cats globally.

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The Joinery, the new community environment space located at the old bus station at 111 Franklin Street, is already starting to feel like home for the groups based there, but every good home needs a great outdoor space!

Adelaide Sustainable Building Network ran a one day design/build workshop to activate and beautify the area outside our Bowen Street entrance.

Over the last few months, working with lots of volunteers and groups, the vision for The Joinery’s outdoor space has gone from aspirational to feasible, and now we are ready to turn it into reality.

This practical, outcomes focused day will begin to creatively transform the outside space into a green oasis in the heart of the city.

Event Official Title: 'The Joinery Design Jam and Construction Workshop'

Special Acknowledgements: 

Conservation Council - Craig Wilkins and Kathryn Warhurst
conservationsa.org.au/

Adelaide Sustainable Building Network - Ken Long and Kerry Reed
Can be found on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn

Event Volunteer Organiser - Christy Spier

Adelaide City Council Placemaking Committee - Michael Fisher

Video Sponsors: 
WAX Design - waxdesign.com.au
dsquared Consulting - dsquaredconsulting.com.au

Special Thanks All Participants (Big and Small) Collaborating to Make The Joinery a Great Urban Space!

Cast: AdelaideSBN and ESM

Scientists monitoring the effectiveness of Commonwealth environmental water in the Murrumbidgee wetlands have recently recorded several important migratory birds in the Lowbidgee floodplain including the sharp-tailed sandpiper and common...

The Minister has approved the inclusion of two ecological communities, Central Hunter Valley eucalypt forest and woodland to the critically endangered category and Posidonia australis seagrass meadows of the Manning-Hawkesbury ecoregion to the endangered category.

The cause of the most deadly sea star epidemic in recorded history remains unclear, but experts believe it may be a poorly understood ‘wasting’ disease

It is a gruesome death. First the legs shrivel up, followed by lesions. Then the legs inch away and finally detach. The victim continues to deteriorate until it is nothing but a plot of sticky goo.

This is the thoroughly unpleasant way by which scores of sea stars, also known as starfish, have perished along the North American west coast in the most deadly epidemic to hit the iconic echinoderms in recorded history.

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Powerwall leads the way in solving the problem of energy storage, but the $3,000-plus price raises questions about its economic viability

“The goal is complete transformation of the entire energy infrastructure of the world,” Tesla founder Elon Musk told reporters as he launched the electric car company’s new home power storage battery on Thursday.

“This is actually within the power of humanity to do. It is not impossible.” Electricity storage is the “missing link” in weaning the economy off fossil fuels, said the entrepreneur with characteristic understatement.

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Rachel Catt walks us through 'Loft on Seventh' at Bowden Village, South Australia's first 5 Star Green Star townhome projects. The notion of ‘elegant frugality’ is the idea of doing things economically but beautifully. This notion permeates through the Loft on Seventh terraces, picking up on the industrial forms and materials of the historically industrial area within which it sits and re-interpreting them in innovative ways, creating unexpected space and luxury.

Rachel Catt:

Rachel joined Williams Burton in early 2012 after returning from nearly five years in London working for the highly acclaimed architectural firm Allies and Morrison.

She played an integral role in the delivery of the both 'Loft on Seventh' and 'Gibson & 7th' developments for Systembuilt at the Bowden Life More Interesting site coordinated by Renewal SA.

Williams Burton Architecture + Interior Design - williamsburton.com.au/

Cast: AdelaideSBN

Tags: adelaide, Rachel Catt, AdelaideSBN, Williams Burton and Green Star

All about space junk!

New analysis reveals likely impact of global warming on plants and animals if we fail to take action, and comes ahead of crunch climate talks in Paris

In pictures: Animals and plants that could be lost because of climate change

One in six of the planet’s species will be lost forever to extinction if world leaders fail to take action on climate change, according to a new analysis.

The stark warning on the scale of global warming’s impact on animals and plants comes just months before nearly 200 governments meet for UN climate talks in Paris in an attempt to forge a global deal on cutting carbon emissions.

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Matthew Waltho discusses the ambitions and happenings at the Tonsley Development, a mixed-use precinct which will support the transformation of South Australia’s manufacturing industry by providing a high quality, people-focused and knowledge-driven environment.

Matthew Waltho:
Prior to joining the Tonsley Project as Sustainability Manager, Matt worked for 10 years in UK Government and Local Council, integrating sustainability principles into economic development policy and large scale infrastructure projects. He also developed the Environmental evidence base and led the Strategic Environmental Assessment for the first Integrated Regional Strategy in England’s North West Region. Matt is responsible for delivering a Green Star Community for Tonsley under the Green Building Council Australia’s Pilot rating tool.

tonsley.com/

Cast: AdelaideSBN

Tags: Renewal SA, Tonsley, Green Star Communities and sustainable urban planning

Find out the latest updates on the Commonwealth Marine Reserves Review.

Weak renewable energy goals for 2030 originated with Shell pitch for gas as a key technology for Europe to cut its carbon emissions in an affordable way

Shell successfully lobbied to undermine European renewable energy targets ahead of a key agreement on emissions cuts reached in October last year, newly released documents reveal.

At the time of the emissions deal, the European commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said: “This package is very good news for our fight against climate change.” He added: “No player in the world is as ambitious as the EU.”

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With rhino numbers collapsed due to poaching for their horns, a lot rides on one pampered animal in the Kenyan savannah doing his best to further the species

Mohamed Doyo seems to have a dream job. Every evening, he patrols the Kenyan savannah, glimpsing lions chasing down darting Thomson’s gazelles, hearing the calls of red-chested cuckoos and, when there is a full moon, seeing the majestic, snow-capped peaks of Mount Kenya in the distance.

But Doyo can scarcely stop to admire the extraordinary views because he and a large squad of rangers perform an extraordinary job: they must keep poachers away from one of the rarest species on earth, including the star attraction at the 135 sq mile conservancy, Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino.

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Greenpeace activists Frank Hewetson, Alex Harris and Phil Ball spent 100 days in a Russian prison after protesting against Arctic oil exploration. At a Guardian Members’ event they told the dramatic story of their imprisonment and release

By all accounts, the violent storming of Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship by Russian commandos in September 2013 and the subsequent jailing of the 30 activists and journalists on board, facing a 15-year sentence for piracy, was a terrifying and devastating experience.

At a Guardian Live event, activists Frank Hewetson, Alex Harris and Phil Ball (in the audience), were joined by Ben Stewart – Greenpeace’s head of media at the time and author of a new book describing the events, Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg.

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The Australian Government will host the Threatened Species Summit in Melbourne on 16 July 2015.

Huge lumps of congealed fat, waste and wet wipes are blocking sewage systems around the world, from west London to Melbourne

You can run but you can’t hide … or flush your toilet. Yep, it’s the return of the fatberg, a monstrous blob of congealed fat, waste, and wet wipes coming soon to asewer near you. Especially if you happen to live in west London. This week’s culprit is a 40-metre bruiser removed from under the leafy streets of Chelsea and weighing as much as five Porsches. The latest fatberg was so big-boned it broke a 70-year-old sewer pipe, leaving Thames Water with a £400,000 repair bill.

It wasn’t even the area’s worst. In 2013, “Britain’s biggest berg”, weighing 15 tonnes and as long as a double-decker bus, was found in Kingston upon Thames, and last year a fatberg the size of a Boeing 747 was discovered under the streets of Shepherd’s Bush. It’s only a matter of time before a fatberg as mighty as the Titanic herself bursts out of the manholes on High Street Ken and starts ransacking the place, Slimer-from-Ghostbusters style.

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This year's Earth Day comes just months before a landmark UN climate summit, is marked by a Google Doodle

• Join the Guardian's climate campaign, Keep it in the Ground

Which year was the first Earth Day?

1960

1970

1980

Who founded the first Earth Day in the US?

Gaylord Nelson

Al Gore

Amory Lovins

When did Margaret Thatcher first warn in a Royal Society speech about the dangers of global warming?

1981

1985

1988

What level of warming do international negotiators regard as the threshold for dangerous climate change?

1C

2C

3C

Which pair won a Nobel prize in 2007 for their efforts to tackle climate change?

Al Gore and Rajendra Pachauri

David Cameron and Rajendra Pachauri

Yvo de Boer and Rajendra Pachauri

How much of proven fossil fuel reserves need to stay under the ground to stay below 2C?

Around two thirds to three quarters

Around a tenth

Around a third

In which European city is a major UN climate summit being held in November and December this year?

Bonn

Geneva

Paris

The UN climate science panel said with what % certainty that climate change is manmade?

75%

85%

95%

Who was the author of an influential 2006 report on the economics of climate change?

Stanislav Stern

Nicholas Stern

Todd Stern

Which two charitable organisations is the Guardian asking to divest from fossil fuels?

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust

The Ford Foundation and J. Paul Getty Trust

The Church Commissioners for England and W.K. Kellogg Foundation

4 and above.

Thanks for taking part. Have you joined the Guardian climate change campaign, Keep it in the Ground? <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign">Join more than 180,000 people here</a>

7 and above.

Thanks for taking part. Have you joined the Guardian climate change campaign, Keep it in the Ground? <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign">Join more than 180,000 people here</a>

10 and above.

Thanks for taking part. Have you joined the Guardian climate change campaign, Keep it in the Ground? <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign">Join more than 180,000 people here</a>

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The Minister has agreed to transfer the Leadbeater's Possum from the endangered to the critically endangered category under the EPBC Act and approved the conservation advice.

Big things are happening on Rotoroa, a new sanctuary for endangered species that aims to create a whole new ecosystem

Rotoroa Island, off the coast of New Zealand is tiny, at just 82 hectares (200 acres), but don’t let its diminutiveness fool you: big things are happening here. Over the past few years the island has become the site of a quiet, but grand, conservation experiment. What would happen if you populated an island with a whole suite of endangered species, some of which were never found there to begin with? And what would happen if you didn’t fence the island off and keep pesky humans out, but let people – school groups even – tramp through the grounds?

Across most of our planet, truly wild, unmanaged places are a thing of the past.

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