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Labor vows to block 'largest removal of marine area from conservation, ever'
Opposition condemns Coalition plan to open more recreational and commercial fishing areas
Labor says it will move to disallow new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government, branding the change the “largest removal of marine area from conservation, ever, from any government in the world”.
The new management plans were uploaded by officials on the federal register of legislation on Tuesday, cutting across a public announcement the Turnbull government had planned to make on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Children drawing more women in science
Shoestring expedition returns with wild photos of Sumatra
A shoestring expedition to one of the remotest places in Sumatra has returned with stunning photos of tigers, tapirs, clouded leopards among other rare species, large and small. Will they find orangutans next?
Last year a motley crew of conservationists, adventurers and locals trekked into one of the last unexplored regions of Sumatra. They did so with a mission: check camera traps and see what they could find. The team – organized by the small NGO, Habitat ID – came back with biological gold: photos of Sumatran tigers, Malayan tapirs, and sun bears. They also got the first record of the Sunda clouded leopard in the area and found a specimen of a little-known legless reptile called Wegner’s glass lizard. But most tantalizingly of all is what they didn’t find, but still suspect is there: a hidden population of orangutans that would belong to the newly described species, Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis).
“The trek into the interior was fraught with hordes of leaches, wasps, cliffs, river-crossings, and trackless jungle, and it pushed everyone on the team to their limits,” Greg McCann, the head of Habitat ID and a team member, said, clearly relishing the adventure to an undisclosed area they call Hadabaun Hills.
Continue reading...Last male northern white rhino is put down
Hopes for species rest on IVF with two females after death of Sudan, the ‘gentle giant’
The last male northern white rhinoceros has died, leaving only two females with which conservationists hope to save the species from extinction.
Sudan, the “gentle giant” who lived in the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, was put down on Monday after the pain from a degenerative illness became too great. He is survived by his daughter and granddaughter.
Continue reading...Rhino dies: Sudan was the last male northern white
Antony Albanese on bushfire climate row
Survey reveals which Easter eggs use the most packaging
Plastic and cardboard packaging makes up more than a quarter of product weight in some of the UK’s best-selling chocolate eggs
Packaging alone accounts for up to a quarter, on average, of the total weight of the most popular Easter eggs on sale on the High Street, new research by a consumer group has revealed.
Fish and chips to curry: UK's favourite dishes at risk from climate change, research shows
Earth Hour campaign aims to raise awareness of the impact global warming could have on food supplies, from cod stocks to the rice and tomatoes used to make chicken tikka masala
Some of the UK’s best-loved dishes – including fish and chips and chicken tikka masala – could be under threat as a result of climate change, environmentalists warn in a new report on Tuesday.
Can climate litigation save the world?
Courts are a new front line of climate action with cases against governments and oil firms spiralling, and while victories have so far been rare the pressure for change is growing
Global moves to tackle climate change through lawsuits are poised to break new ground this week, as groups and individuals seek to hold governments and companies accountable for the damage they are causing.
Continue reading...Country diary: a landscape coming in from the cold
Claxton, Norfolk: A lone blackbird offers hope of spring in the snowstorm’s Arctic silence
Even now there are several roadside heaps of it where the snowdrifts had been so high that we were entirely cut off for three days. These vestiges hardly conjure the power of that extraordinary storm, but it has been fascinating to track the whole system as a single organism.
Continue reading...Marine heatwave set off 'carbon bomb' in world's largest seagrass meadow
22% of seagrass in Western Australia’s Shark Bay was lost after 2010-11 heatwave, causing release of up to 9m tonnes of carbon
A marine heatwave in Western Australia in 2010 set off a massive “carbon bomb”, damaging the world’s largest seagrass meadow, releasing millions of tonnes of carbon that had been collected for thousands of years below the surface.
Although Australia doesn’t currently count carbon released from damaged seagrass meadows in its official greenhouse gas emissions, if it did, the results mean those figures might need to be revised upwards by more than 20%.
The unholy alliance that explains why renewables are trouncing nuclear
AEMO wants new rules to keep up with shift to renewables, rising temps
Uber self-driving fatality raises questions about autonomous vehicles
WA-designed clear glass solar windows gear up for production
Journey to zero emissions electricity: How hard can it be?
A world first renewable energy system inaugurated in Denmark
AEMO shatters some Marshall myths about South Australia energy
Brewer CUB contracts 112MW solar farm, on way to 100% renewables
The new forest wars: 'This is something we didn't expect' – video
Twenty years ago the regional forest agreements were introduced to protect native forests and deliver 'ecologically sustainable forest management'. Now, with the RFAs set to be renewed, conservationists say ancient forests are being destroyed, while the timber industry says its operating under strict codes. It's the return of the forest wars
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