Feed aggregator

We knew this powerful carnivorous mammal ate kangaroos, but I now think we can speculate on how it caught them too

I've been thinking – as one does – about marsupial lions. Of all the species that became extinct after people first arrived in Australia, between 40 and 50,000 years ago, this is the one that intrigues me most.

Even more, that is, than the spiny anteater the size of a pig; a relative of the wombat the size of a rhinoceros; a marsupial tapir as big as a horse; a ten-foot kangaroo; a horned tortoise eight feet long and a monitor lizard bigger than the Nile crocodile. The lost Australian megafauna looks like a science fiction film directed by an acid casualty.

Continue reading...

Mark Powell was spotted by Royal Navy patrol dredging for scallops in a special area of conservation in Cardigan Bay

A fisherman has been ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £50,000 after he was caught dredging for scallops in a conservation area protected because it is a precious habitat for marine animals including dolphins.

Mark Powell, the skipper of The Golden Fleece II, was spotted by a Royal Navy patrol dredging for scallops in a special area of conservation off the coast of Wales.

Continue reading...

SENG Qld Newsletter - April 2014

Nominations are now closed for the assessment period starting 1 October 2014, for any species, ecological communities or key threatening processes to be considered for listing under national environment law.

SENG SA News and Events

The Department is seeking public comment on the proposal for Australia to ratify the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Comments close 30 June 2014.

Scientist revises her book Seeds of Hope after allegations 12 sections were lifted from other websites

Leading primatologist Jane Goodall has blamed a "hectic work schedule" and her "chaotic method of note taking" for a plagarism controversy surrounding her reissued book.

Speaking ahead of the publication of a revised edition of Seeds of Hope, first published in August 2013, Goodall, said she had learned lessons following reports in the Washington Post last year that at least 12 sections of the book were lifted from other websites including Wikipedia.

Continue reading...

IPCC report warns life in the Filipino capital and other coastal cities will get much worse in many ways as temperatures rise

Joshua Alvarez and his family fear for their lives when the monsoon rains come. Last August their two-bedroom flat in Manila was flooded when severe tropical storm Trami dumped 15 inches of rain (380mm) in a few hours and the local reservoir overflowed. They fled to a flyover with thousands of others as five large areas of the capital were inundated with muddy waters up to three metres deep and a state of calamity was declared in three Philippine provinces.

In 2012, typhoon Haikui battered the megacity of 12 million people for eight days, but when tropical storm Ondoy hit Manila in 2009 and a month's worth of rain fell in a few hours, the city came close to catastrophe. Nearly 80% was flooded, 246 people died and hundreds of thousands had to be evacuated.

Continue reading...

The Department is inviting tenders from Service Providers interested in being involved in the Green Army Programme.

Public consultation 31 March – 18 April 2014

Scientist behind the Gaia hypothesis says environment movement does not pay enough attention to facts and he was too certain in the past about rising temperatures

Environmentalism has "become a religion" and does not pay enough attention to facts, according to James Lovelock.

The 94 year-old scientist, famous for his Gaia hypothesis that Earth is a self-regulating, single organism, also said that he had been too certain about the rate of global warming in his past book, that "it’s just as silly to be a [climate] denier as it is to be a believer” and that fracking and nuclear power should power the UK, not renewable sources such as windfarms.

Continue reading...

Release of the Management Program for the Saltwater Crocodile in the Northern Territory of Australia, 2014–2015

The Department is seeking public comment on a draft assessment bilateral agreement with the Australian Capital Territory. Comments close 28 April 2014.

Sequestering carbon in soils in grazing systems - open for public consultation until 6 May 2014.

To help address the growing number of native flora and fauna that are faced with extinction, the Government is appointing Australia's first Threatened Species Commissioner to bring a new national focus to conservation efforts

Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 24 April 2014

Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 24 April 2014

Agency application on ecological sustainability - comments close 24 April 2014

Applications close 5.00pm AEST Friday 11 April 2014

Maximising Persian Gulf oil flows to avert a potential global energy crisis motivated Iraq War planners - not WMD or democracy

Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of the 2003 Iraq War - yet to this day, few media reflections on the conflict accurately explore the extent to which opening up Persian Gulf energy resources to the world economy was a prime driver behind the Anglo-American invasion.

The overwhelming narrative has been one of incompetence and failure in an otherwise noble, if ill-conceived and badly managed endeavour to free Iraqis from tyranny. To be sure, the conduct of the war was indeed replete with incompetence at a colossal scale - but this doesn't erase the very real mendacity of the cold, strategic logic that motivated the war's US and British planners in the first place.

Continue reading...