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How fracking can contribute to climate change
Leakage of natural gas from drilling and pipework means more methane is entering the atmosphere
One of the justifications for fracking is the use of natural gas as a bridging fuel between coal and a low-carbon future. However natural gas is mostly methane, which has strong global warming impacts in its own right. Natural gas therefore only provides climate benefits over coal if the leakage is no more than 2-3%.
We cannot measure leaks from every pipe joint. One alternative is to measure the sum of lots of leaks from a distance. Flights over US shale gas fields reveal large methane sources, but these areas also have cattle farms that produce methane and the two sources need to be separated.
Continue reading...Homeowners kept in dark about climate change risk to houses, says report
Climate Institute says risk data held by regulators, state and local governments, insurers and banks, but homebuyers and developers do not have access to it
The risk that houses in some areas of Australia are likely to become uninsurable, dilapidated and uninhabitable due to climate change is kept hidden from those building and buying property along Australia’s coasts and in bushfire zones, a Climate Institute report says.
The report says there is untapped and unshared data held by regulators, state and local governments, insurers and banks on the level of risk, but that most homebuyers and developers are not told about the data and do not have access to it.
Continue reading...Labor pledges $500m over five years to support Great Barrier Reef
Extra cash for scientific monitoring and management promised by Bill Shorten to support one of party’s ‘highest priorities’
Labor is promising to invest $500m to boost scientific monitoring and management of the Great Barrier Reef over five years as it unveils its biggest environmental policy of the election campaign so far.
It says it will adopt every recommendation in the Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce final report, released last week.
Continue reading...Most coral dead in central section of Great Barrier Reef, surveys reveal
As mass bleaching sweeps the world heritage site, scientists also find an average of 35% of coral dead or dying in the northern and central sections of the reef
The majority of coral is now dead on many reefs in the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, according to an underwater survey of 84 reefs, in the worst mass bleaching event to hit the world heritage site.
An average of 35% of coral was now dead or dying in the northern and central sections, according to the surveys led by the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
Continue reading...Women are ready to take on fracking | Letters
There is a whole generation of women out here who were protesters at Greenham Common, Aldermaston, and the Newbury Bypass (Anti-Fracking groups plan protest camps, 26 May). Besides working with our partners to help our children carve out a life in a horribly hostile financial climate, we are volunteering on committees to help keep youth and children’s centres, libraries, and village halls open, because council budgets are totally inadequate. In our 50s, 60s and 70s, we are supporting the junior doctors, standing against welfare cuts, and for renewable energy. We want this government to publish the report, which they have been sitting on since the end of March, on the Environmental Impact of Shale Gas Technology, by the independent Climate Change Committee. Yes, I think there will be anti-fracking camps like Balcombe here in the north. I think there might be all sorts of imaginative social disobedience. We’ve been round the block already, and demographics show that our age group is growing. Even if we didn’t get to Greenham Common, there are quite a lot of us who might make up for it in Kirby Misperton, Preston New Road, or Roseacre Wood.
Janet Russell
Silsden, West Yorkshire
How a Nottinghamshire hamlet wages quiet battle against fracking
After North Yorkshire allows test drilling, villagers in Misson are determined to stop the same happening in former bomber pilot testing ground
When councillors in North Yorkshire ignored widespread public opposition and granted planning permission for the fracking company Third Energy to carry out test drilling, there were groans around the Nottinghamshire village of Misson.
For the last two years, tenacious locals in this quiet fenland hamlet have been fighting attempts by another energy firm to set up a shale gas exploration site in a nearby field.
Continue reading...Australia covered up UN climate change fears for Tasmania forests and Kakadu
Fears about damage to the Great Barrier Reef were removed from UN report along with concern about a threat to the environment in two other heritage sites
A draft UN report on climate change, which was scrubbed of all reference to Australia over fears it could deter visitors to the Great Barrier Reef, also outlined possible threats to the Tasmania wilderness and Kakadu.
Continue reading...Zoo gorilla shot as boy falls into moat
Sustainable energy: inside Iceland’s geothermal power plant
Thanks to its position on a volatile section of the Mid-Atlantic ridge, Iceland is a world leader in the the use of geothermal energy, and of the six geothermal power plants in Iceland, Hellisheiði (pronounced “het-li-shay-thee”) is the newest and largest. Fully operational since 2010, it sits on the mossy slopes of the Hengill volcano in the south-west of the country; a green and placid-looking landscape that belies the turbulent geological activity rumbling beneath it.
To access the potential energy under the surface, wells are drilled thousands of metres into the ground, penetrating reservoirs of pressurised water. Heated by the Earth’s energy, this water can be more than 300C in temperature, and when released it boils up from the well, turning partly to steam on its way. At Hellisheiði, the steam is separated from the water to power some of the plant’s seven turbines, while the remaining water is further depressurised to create more steam, used to power other turbines. At its maximum output the station can produce 303MW of electricity, making it one of the three largest single geothermal power stations in the world.
Continue reading...Women lead the call to arms as anti-fracking fight intensifies
Female opposition to drilling soars as mothers unite in desire to safeguard children’s future
“We are ready for them,” said Tina Louise Rothery. “It has been a long battle but we have been ready for a confrontation for a long time.”
Rothery is one of a growing group of women at the forefront of opposition to fracking. Of the 250 anti-fracking community groups that have sprung up in Britain in the past few years, very many are led, or strongly backed, by women, who say they have been outraged at plans to risk people’s health by exploiting the countryside for shale gas.
Continue reading...Eve the Jurassic sea monster
The eco guide to pet fish
Time to help the creatures that, wrested from habitats where they swim thousands of miles, end up atrophying in tanks
We need to talk about Dory. As Pixar’s charming version of a tropical blue tang swims on to screens in Finding Dory next month, conservationists fear a wave of inappropriate fish buying.
Finding Nemo, which triggered just such a global craze in 2003, posed less of a threat. Clownfish (Nemo’s ilk) are usually bred in captivity for the aquarium trade, but blue tangs are “harvested” from the wild for aquariums, with up to 80% dying during capture and transportation. There is intense pressure on wild populations, especially around coral reefs.
Continue reading...Alma telescope peers into space
The inconvenient scientists
Scientists discover gigantic sea sponge in Hawaii – video
Deep sea scientists exploring the remote waters between Hawaii and Midway atoll find a gigantic sea sponge “about the size of a minivan” that could be the oldest animal on earth. A remote-operated submersible found the sponge about 2,100m (7,000ft) down, while exploring the depths of the Papahānaumokuākea marine park
Continue reading...VIDEO: Onboard camera captures rocket landing
Construction of world's largest dam in DR Congo could begin within months
Mega dam on Congo river to produce electricity equal to 20 large nuclear power stations, but critics say it will displace 60,000 people and wreck the ecosystem
The largest dam in the world is set to begin construction within months and could be generating electricity in under five years. But 35,000 people may have to be relocated and it could be built without any environmental or social impact surveys, say critics.
The $14bn (£9.5bn) Inga 3 project, the first part of the mega-project, is being fast-tracked by the Democratic Republic of Congo government will span one channel of the vast river Congo at Inga Falls. It involves a large dam and a 4,800MW hydro-electric plant.
Continue reading...Solved: the mystery of our absent red squirrels
Strathnairn, Highlands In all the years we had lived here, we had never had a red squirrel in the garden. This has been the subject of much banter in the village shop
One of the main wildlife mysteries in the strath is the distribution of red squirrels in gardens in the adjoining villages of Farr and Inverarnie. Over many years we have advised people over putting out peanuts and feeders, and every one has succeeded in attracting them. However, one garden of an acre with mature trees and seemingly ideal has not succeeded, and it is ours!
Continue reading...Tracing Western Australia's pest starlings
Maths used to estimate populations of elusive plants and animals
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