Environment news

• Victorian beach closed after repeated shark sightings

  25-12-2016 23:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Fairhaven beach was closed on Boxing Day and swimmers have been urged to stick to patrolled beaches after dozens of sharks were spotted on Christmas DayVictoria’s Fairhaven beach on the Great Ocean Road was closed on Monday after a shark sighting, adding to dozens of sightings on Christmas Day.Surf lifesavers called swimmers out of the water about 11am on Boxing Day. Continue reading...
  
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• Thirty sharks spotted along Victorian beaches

  25-12-2016 23:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Swimmers urged to stick to patrolled beaches after high number of sightings at favourite holiday spotsAbout 30 sharks were sighted along Victorian beaches on Christmas Day, prompting Fisheries Victoria to urge people to swim at patrolled beaches.The Life Saving Victoria helicopter spotted 12 sharks off Anglesea beach, a favourite holiday spot on the Great Ocean Road. About 13km south, between 15 and 20 sharks were sighted at Fairhaven beach. Continue reading...
  
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• Blubber on the bonnet: seal leaves a dent in Tasmanian town

  25-12-2016 23:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Launceston police were sent on a wild chase on Boxing Day morning after a large seal wandered through suburban streets, vandalising property and evading capture Continue reading...
  
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• Robin brings a touch of home to the trenches: Country diary 100 years ago

  25-12-2016 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 26 December 1916December 25
  To all of us the familiar robin has been intimately associated with Christmas since childhood, and certainly when we scatter the fragments of Christmas fare for the birds to have their share the fearless, friendly robin is sure to get the first pick. It does not wait, like the sparrows and starlings, until the door is closed, but comes down trustfully before the scraps have left our hands. But the association with Chr
  
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• What will be the big environment events in 2017?

  25-12-2016 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From air pollution to Trump and wildlife extinction, we look at the major environmental issues for the year aheadAfter five years of false starts and delays, 2017 will see exploratory fracking for shale gas begin in earnest in England. The first wells will likely be drilled in Lancashire and Yorkshire by the summer, and Cuadrilla, Third Energy and other companies will hope to confirm commercially viable quantities of the gas by the end of the year. With only 17% of people in Britain in favour of
  
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• China to levy new taxes in bid to strengthen pollution fight

  25-12-2016 09:37
  China's largely rubber-stamp parliament passed a law on Sunday that will levy specific environmental protection taxes on industry for the first time from 2018, as part of a renewed focus on fighting the country's pollution woes. Anger has risen in the world's second-largest economy at the government's repeated failure to tackle land, water and air pollution, with large parts of northern China enveloped in dangerous smog in recent days. "Tax revenue is an important economic means to promote envir
  
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