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Solar outstrips coal in past six months of UK electricity generation
More power came from solar panels than from Britain’s ageing coal stations from April to September this year, report shows
Electricity generated by solar panels on fields and homes outstripped Britain’s ageing coal power stations over the past six months in a historic first.
Climate change analysts Carbon Brief found more electricity came from the sun than coal from April to the end of September, in a report that highlighted the two technologies’ changing fortunes.
Sublime moment with a warbler on the canyon's rim
Vikos Gorge, Greece Wrapped right around our planet from Alaska to Vladivostok, these migrant birds are draining south now among us all
This extraordinary Epirot valley is claimed to be the world’s deepest gorge, and from a spot called Beloi it seemed a reasonable notion. Yet it must be said that reason is the part of human equipment least appropriate to this experience. For, just to get there, you had to descend through a scramble of boulders and use all four limbs in tandem to map the next small awkward advance. Until finally, at the canyon rim, where a chest-high wall enclosed a small soil-floored cup with standing room for five, you looked out and it hit you.
How bizarre, you reflected later, that, poised on the edge of all this nothing – the guard wall balanced above a chasm of 700m – and with only the exquisite liquid quality of Greek light between you and mountains perhaps 20km away, you had suddenly felt lost for air.
Continue reading...Planet at its hottest in 115,000 years thanks to climate change, experts say
Global warming is said to be bringing temperatures last seen during an interglacial era, when sea level was 6-9 meters (20-30ft) higher than today
The global temperature has increased to a level not seen for 115,000 years, requiring daunting technological advances that will cost the coming generations hundreds of trillions of dollars, according to the scientist widely credited with bringing climate change to the public’s attention.
A new paper submitted by James Hansen, a former senior Nasa climate scientist, and 11 other experts states that the 2016 temperature is likely to be 1.25C above pre-industrial times, following a warming trend where the world has heated up at a rate of 0.18C per decade over the past 45 years.
Continue reading...Trees thought to be extinct in UK found at Queen's residence in Edinburgh
Two 100ft Wentworth elms were ‘hidden in plain sight’ and spotted during recent tree survey at Holyrood Palace
Trees believed to have been extinct in Britain have been discovered at the Queen’s official residence in Scotland.
The two 30-metre (98ft) Wentworth elms have been identified in the Queen’s garden at the Palace of Holyroodhouse just a stone’s throw from the centre of Edinburgh. Tree experts are now looking into ways of propagating the rare specimens, which carry the botanical name Ulmus wentworthii pendula.
Continue reading...BP platform leaks 95 tonnes of oil into North Sea
Spill 46 miles off Shetland is being monitored by air and said to be heading away from land and dispersing
Around 95 tonnes of oil were leaked into the North Sea from a BP platform on Sunday, the company has said.
The leak is around two and a half times smaller than the biggest North Sea spill in recent years, at Shell’s Gannet platform off Aberdeen in 2011.
Continue reading...Ian Mercer obituary
Ian Mercer, who has died aged 83, spent more than half a century in countryside conservation. His work as the first national park officer for Dartmoor (1973-90) and as the first chief executive of the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW, 1990-95) had a lasting impact not only on the landscapes over which he presided but on the management of land for wildlife, amenity and public access throughout Britain.
Ian’s greatest triumph concerning Dartmoor was to initiate the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, which established a commoners’ council to safeguard the interests of the moor and open it fully to public access. The act had wider significance, for it was the precursor of the nationwide Commons Act 2006, which also provided for commoners’ councils and enabled them to obtain environmental funding.
Continue reading...Bid for strongest protection for all African elephants defeated at wildlife summit
Cites meeting blocks proposal for ban on all trade of ivory from four southern African countries with stable or increasing elephant populations - but passes other vital conservation measures
A bid to give the highest level of international legal protection to all African elephants was defeated on Monday at a global wildlife summit.
The EU played a pivotal role in blocking the proposal, which was fought over by rival groups of African nations.
Continue reading...BP's North Sea oil spill heading away from land
Oil on the surface of the water appears to be moving north following a spill west of Shetland on Sunday, energy firm says
An oil spill from a North Sea platform is heading away from land, according to BP.
Its Clair platform was shut down on Sunday following the leak.
Continue reading...Revealed: MRSA variant found in British pork at Asda and Sainsbury's
Tests find UK-produced pork products infected with the livestock strain of the superbug, with potentially serious implications for human health
Meat produced from British pigs has been shown to be infected with a livestock strain of MRSA, the Guardian can reveal, raising concerns that the UK is on the brink of another food scandal.
Tests on a sample of 97 UK-produced pork products from supermarkets show that three – sold at Asda and Sainsbury’s – were contaminated with the superbug strain which can cause serious health problems.
Continue reading...DOE charts show why climate doom and gloom isn't needed | Dana Nuccitelli
Clean tech costs have fallen 41–94% over the past 7 years. Wind and solar accounted for two-thirds of new energy installations in the US in 2015.
A new report from the US Department of Energy paints a bright picture for our prospects to cut carbon pollution and prevent the most dangerous levels of climate change. The report looked at recent changes in costs and deployment of five key clean energy technologies: wind, residential solar, utility-scale solar, batteries, and LED bulbs. For each technology, costs fell between 41% and 94% from 2008 to 2015.
Continue reading...South Australia seeks to put 'emissions intensity' trading scheme in play
State pushes for greater integration of Australia’s electricity network – but Josh Frydenberg says the idea will have to wait
The South Australian government expects a special meeting of energy ministers scheduled for Friday to examine the factors behind last week’s power blackouts in the state will also canvas whether there should be a national “emissions intensity” trading scheme for the electricity sector.
South Australia has been pushing for the adoption of a national scheme that would work as a form of emissions trading for the electricity sector. Generators would be penalised for polluting above an emissions-intensity baseline, to help drive an orderly transition to low-emissions energy sources.
Continue reading...Woman scares off crocodile with sandal – video
A woman walking her dog shoos away a saltwater crocodile by clapping her sandal on her hand. The incident happened last month at a famous feeding ground for crocodiles at the Kakadu national park in the Northern Territory
Continue reading...Six billion plastic bags can’t be wrong – so what do we tax next?
Once, my family’s kitchen cupboard would have contained dozens of plastic bags. But today – a year after the introduction of England’s 5p plastic bag charge – I count just six (three secondhand ones, given to us by other people, one corner-shop bag and two small bags supplied with meat and fish).
England’s plastic bag charge was a long time coming – long after Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – and critics predicted its exemptions for small stores and paper bags would diminish its effectiveness. A year ago, Andy Cummins, campaigns director of Surfers Against Sewage, predicted that England’s charge would reduce use of plastic bags, but not as effectively as in Scotland, Wales (down 78%) and Northern Ireland (down 81%).
Continue reading...Virtual reality project lets users see life as a doomed cow or piece of coral
Scientists hope immersive experience, enabling people to experience the world through the eyes of a cow destined for market or a coral on a dying reef, can increase people’s connection with environmental issues
Scientists have taken the notion ‘you are what you eat’ to a new level by using virtual reality to help people see the world through the eyes of a cow – or a piece of coral – to make them feel part of the natural world.
With several consumer virtual reality headsets now on the market, researchers hope experiencing life from an animal’s point of view could change environmental behaviour where other methods have failed.
Continue reading...The Welsh hills are alive with the sounds of visitors
Cadair Idris, Gwynedd This diverse aural geography perhaps reflects the transformation of the Welsh hills from a rural landscape into a recreational one
Cadair Idris may not attract the vast crowds of Snowdon, which sees more visitors every year than there are people living in Bristol, but it’s still not a mountain you get to yourself on a sunny September Saturday. In the Minffordd Path car park, scores of people perch on car bumpers pulling on socks and stout footwear. A man with an Estuary English accent is ribbing his companions, who have voices from the Valleys. A jovial but slightly pointed argument over Welsh independence ensues.
My dad and I join the procession, which takes us up through a swath of relict woodland. Summer’s green lustre is going; oak leaves are crisping at the edges. But out on the open hillside, clusters of rowan berries shine lipstick-bright in the light, their ripe autumnal red contrasting with the brooding volcanic sublimity of Craig Cau. Sleep on these slopes, goes the local legend, and you wake up either mad or a poet (it doesn’t specify which is worse).
Continue reading...Woman uses thong to scare off stalking crocodile in Northern Territory
Reptile retreats after woman claps rubber shoe against her hand at famous Kakadu national park feeding ground, where rangers are calling for stricter safety controls
Northern Territory rangers and traditional owners are calling for greater safety measures after a woman shooed away a saltwater crocodile with her thong in Kakadu national park last month.
The woman and her small dog had a dangerous confrontation with the nearly four-metre predator while standing at the water’s edge on the East Alligator River at Cahill’s Crossing – a famous feeding ground for crocodiles.
Continue reading...All nature flourishes along the hedgerows: Country diary 100 years ago
Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 7 October 1916
Surrey, October 5
A warm sun, as of the latter days of August, broke through this morning and brought summer along the hedgerows. Almost before the dew had dried, a dragon-fly, green and gold, was searching over the tops of the bushes, where almost innumerable insects were on the wing, appearing suddenly as if from nowhere. Thrushes had been singing, but not loudly, for a long while, but they stopped just as a few larks rose out of the meadow and were heard above, although you could not see them for the strong light of the sun. Presently there were noises in the grass, just audible, less than a rustle, but enough to speak of life; a grasshopper leapt over a stray dandelion feather-bloom caught in a piece of thistle which the wind last night had tossed from the ditch bank. On the underside of a bramble-leaf, which was tinted beautifully in the clear light, a ladycow was crawling: all nature was alive.
Across in the stubble a pair-horse, light-soil plough was at work, with a young woman in the thills; the newly sheared earth turned from above the chalk gave out a faint, but fresh smell which was like a tonic to the sense; a flock of grey pigeons came sailing from the far corner of the field, and went straight and true into the oak wood among the acorns; the rooks were flying higher backward and forward, as though in sheer pleasure at being on the wing, yet always moving a little farther towards the west until they disappeared. By noon all was quiet. The hedge fruit was ripening; you could fix on nothing else for the red glory of the haws, which clothed all the thorns and seemed even to colour the nearer air.
Continue reading...Countries fail to agree on complete ban to protect African lions from global trade
The 182 countries at the Johannesburg summit did reach a compromise banning only the trade in bones, teeth and claws from wild lions
An attempt to ban all international trade in African lions, from trophy heads to bones, has failed at a global wildlife summit.
Related: Cecil the lion's legacy: death brings new hope for his grandcubs
Continue reading...World's nations agree elephant ivory markets must close
With poachers killing an elephant every 15 minutes on average, the pressure to shut down the legal trade in ivory is intensifying
Legal ivory markets across the globe must be urgently closed in order to combat the elephant poaching crisis, according to an agreement struck by 182 nations on Sunday.
The decision is significant in intensifying the pressure on countries that still host such markets, which conservationists say provide cover for criminals to launder illegal ivory.
Continue reading...African grey parrot has global summit to thank for protected status
Convention in Johannesburg votes to end all international trade in popular pet birds whose populations have plummeted
The loquacious African grey parrot, one of the most illegally trafficked birds in the world, has been talking itself towards extinction for years thanks to its reputation as a gregarious and long-living pet.
On Sunday it was given extra protection after a global wildlife summit agreed a ban on the international trade.
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