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While the BBC no longer gives climate denial and science equal air time, it continues to struggle with creeping false balance

For years, the BBC has been criticised for the false balance of its climate change coverage. And for years, the BBC has apparently been doing “ongoing work” to fix it. So far, however, this ‘reform’ has been more like a triumph of the middling. Yes, the BBC may broadcast less outright misinformation, but as a scientist and a citizen, I still feel let down by its continually careless handling of climate denial - most recently two weeks ago. This nod to mediocrity is a disservice to science, to public trust, and to the biggest news story in the world. And it is a huge, missed opportunity.

As a young PhD graduate working on climate change solutions, I am confronted daily by a world where the warnings of science are undercut by Fox ‘News’ and its ilk. It is a very different world to the trustworthy BBC broadcasts of David Attenborough and the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures that I grew up with, which helped inspire me to become a scientist. But as a recent BBC News segment by Science Editor David Shukman sadly reminded me, those worlds can too easily collide.

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Vessel aiming to be the ‘Solar Impulse of the seas’ will be powered solely by renewable energies and hydrogen during its six-year voyage

Dubbed the “Solar Impulse of the seas”, the first boat to be powered solely by renewable energies and hydrogen hopes to make its own historic trip around the world.

A water-borne answer to the Solar Impulse – the plane that completed its round-the-globe trip using only solar energy in July – the Energy Observer will be powered by the sun, the wind and self-generated hydrogen when it sets sail in February as scheduled.

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Survey finds nearly one-quarter of businesses already generating some of their power needs with rooftop solar – 83% seriously considering it.

AECOM has been appointed as the Owner’s Engineer for the A$360 million, 180 MW Mount Emerald Wind Farm in North Queensland.

Kickstarting the carbon capture and storage industry with a state-backed company will deliver the clean electricity needed to meet climate targets more cheaply than Hinkley Point C, says government advisory group

The UK must immediately kickstart an industry to capture and bury carbon emissions in order to save consumers billions a year from the cost of meeting climate change targets, according to a high-level advisory group appointed by ministers.

This requires the setting up of a new state-backed company to create the network needed to pipe the emissions into exhausted oil and gas fields under the North Sea, the group said.

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Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales Our loft has become a maternity roost from which the brown long-eared bats emerge at dusk to scour the surrounding area for incautious insects

Nearly a century ago, someone bought part of the pasture at the end of the lane and built the house we’ve lived in for about a quarter of its life. This quiet spot faces east into the Cambrian Mountains and the builder cleverly oriented the house to ensure the best view from the front windows.

Related: Bats at large, unseasonably, on a mild winter afternoon

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Australian climate policy is being framed on the basis that the country should proceed as slowly as it possibly can – a course that is being justified by technology cost estimates heavily tilted against solar. No wonder the CCA is so confused.

The 17yo Pelican Point gas generator, deemed a "new competitor" by SA govt, withdrew its services just over a week before Northern coal plant closed.

关于如何保护濒危物种，世界正站在一个十字路口，9月份两次至关重要的全球性会议就这一紧迫问题展开讨论。翻译：奇芳(中外对话/chinadialogue)

消费者和收藏家们都想得到各种稀罕物：鲟鱼子、蛇皮手袋、鲨鱼肉和鱼翅、野生的雪莲球茎、珍贵的红木家具、质量上乘的沉香油，以及珍稀的鸟类、爬行动物、仙人掌和兰花这些动植物活体。但他们极少会停下来想想这些东西的来源。要知道，如今世界上有70多亿人每天都在通过药物、食品、衣服、家具、香料和奢侈品等各种方式消耗着生物多样性。人们对于取自自然的产品的需求不断增加，野生物种面临的压力也在不断增大。

人类从自然获取资源的能力是无限的，现代交通的范围更是无疆的。世界每年的国际旅客人数多达11亿人次，每天有10万个航班，每年的集装箱数量多达5亿个，合法的和非法的野生动植物产品可以被运到世界任何角落。扩大全球贸易、促进发展与保护野生动植物之间的矛盾愈演愈烈，有时他们的目标看起来甚至是南辕北辙。

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Grant King steps down with his exceptionally high regard diminished by the APLNG adventure, while APA flags a new pipeline, betting on rising gas prices.

Tesla's Elon Musk says suite of updates to Tesla's Autopilot system, including an increased reliance on radar technology, a "threefold improvement in safety."

Australia has no plan for managing disused mines but a company has a novel solution for producing renewable energy

Gold was discovered on the Copperfield river in north-western Queensland in 1907. As men flocked to find their fortune, a small township was established and named for the state’s then premier, William Kidston. For close to 100 years, Kidston was a mining town.

But, in 2001, the largest operation – a Canadian-owned goldmine – shut down. The site became another of the roughly 50,000 “orphaned” mines littered across Australia.

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The Minister for the Environment has published the annual list of classes of products the Minister is proposing to consider, during the next financial year, for some form of accreditation or regulation under the Product Stewardship Act 2011.

Global renewable energy developer DP Energy has appointed Catherine Way Business Development Manager, DP Energy Australia.

Signs are appearing the Moroccan government will introduce regulations that will allow for a tariff to be paid for rooftop solar electricity fed into the grid.

Chevy Bolt is keeping with its "next-gen" status and matches Tesla with the introduction of over-the-air software update feature.

An Olympic-style delivery agency could ensure the costs of implementing carbon capture and storage technology are kept to a minimum, says a parliamentary report

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 16 September 1916

The wood is alive now in the evening, while the moon is still almost at its best. As night comes on and the west yellows among the clouds, brown owls begin to call. Everything else is very still; the cattle move noiselessly in the meadow yonder, the sheep lie together under the green oaks. Then a breeze comes, the boughs rustle, moving clouds obscure the light, and the owls start their call. One begins with “Hoo-hoo,” repeated several times, not a loud noise and yet wonderfully penetrating. Then another in the distance, and yet another, answer; they set the barn-owl screeching, in a shrill cry, across by the farm. The clouds pass, the moon shines out, the trees strike all sorts of shadows. The wood is quiet until another cloud and more wind come.

It is curious how the brown owls seem responsive to this waywardness of harvest evenings. On some still nights you may pass a long time in the wood and catch no sound at all. But nearly always, down by the hedge, the barn owl flits along, dropping now and then into the wide ditch, like a white stone tossed from above. He is so quiet in his flight that you would think there is no motion of his wings.

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Some wear-particles from brakes and tyres are small enough to be inhaled, and the increase in wear-particles can outweigh the benefits of improvements in exhaust emissions

One in six MOT failures is due to brake or tyre problems. These wear as we drive, as does the surface of roads. Most of the wear material ends up as dust at the kerb or gets washed into drains but some wear-particles are small enough to be inhaled, and contribute to our air pollution. These particles are rich in transition metals which add to the toxicity of our urban air.

Increasing amounts of wear-particles have been found in new research from King’s College London. Scientists tracked air pollution alongside 65 roads for ten years. The researchers found some roads where the air pollution benefits from improvements in diesel exhausts were outweighed by increases in particles that come from the wear of tyres, brakes and the road. This was mainly on outer London roads that had increasing numbers of heavy good vehicles.

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No consequences for the company if its mine causes greater environmental damage to threatened habitats than expected, says study

Australia’s environmental laws are too weak, a new report argues, citing the Carmichael coalmine as an example. Even what the environment minister has described as the “strictest” environmental conditions on the development allow the destruction of endangered species habitats, the degradation of ecologically and culturally significant water bodies, as well as the production of fossil fuels for burning, it says.

When the federal environment minister gave the most recent approval for Adani’s huge coalmine in 2014, he said it was done on the basis of “36 of the strictest conditions in Australian history”.

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