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White humpback Migaloo spotted off Australia's Byron Bay
History in a remote graveyard
Thockrington, Northumberland Once, the church stood above a village; now there is just the church and a farm. A returning sailor brought cholera in 1847 and the village was wiped out, its houses burnt
From a distance the tiny buttressed church appears as a rocky outcrop, a crag jutting up from the hard dolerite of the Whin Sill. Behind its skyline silhouette, over the shoulder of the hill, the three-pointed stars of wind turbines swivel in the wind. I’m high up here, the view reaching far into the North Pennines. Grasses sway and buckle as I cross the field to open the wooden gate. My hair is whipped across my face as I lower the age-smoothed latch.
The church of St Aidan’s at Thockrington is one of the oldest in Northumberland. Once, it stood above a village; now there is just the church and a farm. A returning sailor brought cholera in 1847 and the village was wiped out, its houses burnt. A drystone wall zigzags around the knoll of the churchyard, an angled enclosure with sparse memorials, randomly placed. I came here thirty years ago to record the flora. Today the grass has been cut, the hay taken off and piled up against the inside of the boundary walls. Fresh leaves are emerging in the turf: red clover, cow parsley, sorrel, vetch and plantain.
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Solar plane makes history after completing round-the-world trip
Solar Impulse 2, which landed in Abu Dhabi, is first plane powered by the renewable energy source to tour the globe
Solar Impulse 2 has completed the first round-the-world flight by a solar-powered aeroplane, after touching down in Abu Dhabi early on Tuesday.
The final leg of the feat, aimed at showcasing the potential of renewable energy, was a bumpy one, with turbulence driven by hot desert air leaving the solo pilot, Bertrand Piccard, fighting with the controls.
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People-powered: renewable energy project changes Indigenous lives in Barkly
Switching from diesel to solar power has reduced power costs and given two remote Northern Territory communities a new lease on life
Deep in the outback, about a 90-minute drive from Tennant Creek, two tiny Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory are coming back to life.
Since May, the Kunapa communities of Ngurrara and Kurnturlpara have been returning to the Barkly tableland, moving into the houses that had been abandoned years ago, setting up a School of the Air for their 15 children, and re-establishing their Indigenous culture. In fact, in a little over a month, the population has increased from just two people to about 40. And the reason? Solar power.
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