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EVs could account for over half Australia new car sales by 2030

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 13:18
Industry-backed report finds doubling Australia's projected EV uptake to 2030 would deliver a $2.9bn boost to GDP, 13,400 new jobs, and save drivers an average of $800 a year.
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Industrial power is expensive in Australia, isn’t it? No, not really

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 13:13
Business customers pay about half what households and small businesses pay in Australia, and their costs are about middle of the road compared to other major economies.
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Australia's emissions rise again in 2017, putting Paris targets in doubt

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-29 13:05

Excluding unreliable land-use data, 2017 greenhouse emissions were again highest on record

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 were again the highest on record when unreliable data from sectors including land clearing and forestry are excluded, according to consultants NDEVR Environmental.

Even including land clearing, overall emissions show a continued rising trend, which began in about 2011, putting Australia’s commitment under the Paris agreement further out of reach.

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All-new Nissan LEAF named ‘2018 world green car of the year’

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 12:28
The All-New Nissan LEAF, the world's best-selling electric vehicle, was named the "2018 World Green Car" at the 2018 New York International Auto Show.
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Poll shows Australians want stronger emissions reduction targets and 60% want phase out of coal

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 12:22
Emissions have increased now for three years in a row, since the repeal of the carbon price. Energy emissions are now at record highs, as revealed by the National Energy Emissions Audit.
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Uber launches ride-share service in Australia

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 12:13
uberPOOL app launches in Sydney, giving customers opportunity to cut costs by 50%, and offering "credible alternative to car ownership."
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National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) data for 2016–17 now available

Department of the Environment - Thu, 2018-03-29 12:13
Each year, more than 4000 industrial facilities estimate their emissions and waste transfers of toxic substances and report them to the NPI. This data helps communities, governments and researchers understand and monitor the sources of industrial...
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Climate science deniers and conservative media have a new hero

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 12:09
Climate science deniers and conservative media have found a new “free speech” hero — an academic who is suing his own university and thinks the multiple human threats to the Great Barrier Reef are overblown.
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Hazelwood, 12 months on, and the fear-mongers have been proved wrong

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 12:00
New analysis shows that Victoria's electricity supply held up without Hazelwood through a hot summer and avoided over four million tonnes of CO2.
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Labor vows 'full scientific assessment' of logging agreements

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-29 10:26

Assessment to include climate science and threatened species impacts, ministers say

Federal Labor is promising to revisit and fix any logging agreements with state governments that are not based on “proper, independent and full scientific assessments”.

In a pledge that could have implications for the rollover of nine agreements due to expire in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia over the next three years, the shadow minister for agriculture, Joel Fitzgibbon, and shadow minister for environment and water, Tony Burke said; “Labor will always support proper, independent and full scientific assessments of RFA [regional forestry agreement] outcomes as part of the agreed framework.

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BMW unveils all-electric Mini, with plans to build them in China

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 09:35
BMW Group unveils all-electric version of iconic 3-door Mini, with production set for 2019 in UK, and plans underway to manufacture in China.
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Solar battery installs to reach 33,000 in 2018 as economics improve

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-29 09:33
One in eight solar installations include battery storage as the economics improves. SunWiz predicts that 33,000 household storage installations in 2018, with NSW leading the market but the best returns made in South Australia.
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The BOM outlook for the weather over the next three months is 'neutral' – here's what that really means

The Conversation - Thu, 2018-03-29 04:57
The Bureau of Meteorology's climate outlook for April to June is 'neutral', but that doesn't mean we're flying blind, weather-wise. Andrew B. Watkins, Manager of Long-range Forecast Services, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Felicity Gamble, Senior climatologist, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Bureau of Meteorology Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Sustainable shopping: save the world, one chocolate at a time

The Conversation - Thu, 2018-03-29 04:56
Chocolate is proof the universe loves us and wants us to be happy. Here's how to hunt up the best, most-sustainable and ethically-tasty chocolate eggs this Easter. Robert Edis, Soil Scientist, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research Kanika Singh, Research Fellow, University of Sydney Richard Markham, Research Program Manager for Horticulture, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Ghostly galaxy may be missing dark matter

BBC - Thu, 2018-03-29 03:00
Scientists have imaged a "transparent" galaxy that may have no dark matter.
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Top marine scientists defend attack on Great Barrier Reef research

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-29 03:00

Researchers from Australia’s leading marine science agency respond to criticism by two academics that doubts much of their work

Scientists at Australia’s leading marine science agency say an attack on the integrity of their research into threats to the Great Barrier Reef was flawed and based on “misinterpretation” and “selective use of data”.

The Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims) researchers were responding to accusations made in November 2017 in a journal Marine Pollution Bulletin that claimed much of their work “should be viewed with some doubt”.

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Tasmanian forest agreement delivers $1.3bn losses in ‘giant fraud’ on taxpayers | John Lawrence

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-29 03:00

Forestry Tasmania’s total cash losses were $454m over 20 years, with a write-down of $751m in value of forest estate

The first Tasmanian regional forest agreement, signed between the state and the commonwealth in 1997, was supposed to start an era in which forestry was both ecologically and economically sustainable.

In fact the last 20 years have been a financial disaster for forest management in Tasmania.

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Our wildlife can be saved – but only with political will | Letters

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-29 02:54
Readers respond to Michael McCarthy’s article about the devastation caused by modern farming to insects and birds

Michael McCarthy is quite wrong when he says most people are unaware of the destruction of Britain’s wildlife (We’ve lost half our wildlife. But the damage can be reversed, 26 March). Even if you never visit the countryside, if you have any kind of garden you will be painfully aware of it. Twenty years ago my bird feeder nearly always had numerous birds on it (eight at a time was the record, I seem to remember). Now the peanuts wither and go black in the feeder. Then, we had many species; now, one pair of blackbirds, one pair of robins and a couple of greedy pigeons. Twenty years ago I saw a mother hedgehog parading through the garden trailing several babies. Now, I haven’t seen a hedgehog for at least a decade.

Up until a couple of years ago the frogs in my garden pond had their riotous mating ceremony around St Valentine’s Day, followed quickly by masses of spawn and then by innumerable tadpoles. Now the date has become variable but results in very little spawn, which after a couple of weeks collapses into featureless slime. The number of pond species has steeply declined and if you put (say) daphnia into a jar of pondwater, they all die instantly. The problem is, what do I do about it apart from writing letters to the Guardian? The government is quite obviously either totally uninterested or completely in the grip of the big chemical firms and the farming lobby. I am delighted to be told that the problem is reversible, and I’m sure it is, but not without a political revolution, of which I see absolutely no sign.
Jeremy Cushing
Exeter

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Cumbrian coal must stay in the ground where it belongs | Letters

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-29 02:53
The government’s rejection of coal-mining in Northumberland is good news, says Marianne Birkby. Now they must follow up by rejecting plans for a new Cumbrian mine

What fantastic news that the government has rejected plans for an opencast coal mine in Northumberland (Javid rejects plan for opencast coalmine, 24 March).

This should put the nail firmly in the coffin of the plan for the first deep coalmine in the UK in 30 years. This would be at the proposed Woodhouse Colliery, which is north of Kendal (not south as wrongly located in your article) and under the Irish Sea off the beautiful coastline of St Bees.

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The Beast of Clashindarroch – Scottish wildcat or Mr Whiskers?

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-29 00:54

It may be one of the largest wildcats ever recorded, but it still looks much like a very large tabby

Name: The Beast of Clashindarroch.

Age: Unknown.

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