Environment news

• Renewables roadshow: how Broken Hill went from mining to drag queens and solar farms

  12-04-2017 22:40 via theguardian.com
  
  The home of BHP and Mad Max can now take credit for kickstarting the large-scale solar industry in AustraliaBroken Hill is the birthplace of modern mining in Australia. It lends its initials “BH” to the mining giant BHP, and in January 2015 in an Australian first, the so-called Silver City was added to the National Heritage listin part due to its mining industry. The city is cut in half by a mine, with a giant pile of waste material rising from its centre. It can be seen from every s
  
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• Renewables roadshow – Broken Hill: mining the ground to mining the sun – video

  12-04-2017 22:35 via theguardian.com
  
  It may be the spirtual home of Priscilla and Mad Max, but Australia’s first heritage-listed city is reimagining its future post mining and shifting its focus to renewable energy with large-scale wind and solar farms Transforming waste into a cleaner CowraContinue reading...
  
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• Children should learn in the great outdoors | Letters

  12-04-2017 19:32 via theguardian.com
  
  With reference to Michael McCarthy’s article (Screens have led to a nature deficit. Kids need to be outdoors, 1 April), I am a forest school leader in an urban primary school where forest school is part of the curriculum. Children also attend an after-school club working towards completing the John Muir award, which encourages conservation through exploration. Accredited level one in forest school is a current option for young people aged 14-plus but is not being commonly accessed.Forest s
  
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• Early dinosaur relative walked like a croc

  12-04-2017 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new fossil suggests an early relative of dinosaurs had some features we associate today with crocodiles and alligators.
  
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• President Trump, it's time we left coal behind

  12-04-2017 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Coal isn’t the future of the American economy – it’s renewable energy. The sooner Donald Trump realizes that, the betterIn the wake of President Trump’s latest executive orders to undo Obama’s efforts on climate and energy, it has become clear that climate science denial isn’t the only blind spot of this administration. It also suffers from what Australian commentator Waleed Aly calls “commercial denialism” – an attempt to fulfill the campaig
  
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• ClientEarth challenges Government to publish delayed emissions strategy

  12-04-2017 14:31
  
  Environmental law firm ClientEarth has written to climate minister Nick Hurd, challenging him to outline timeframes for the delayed emissions reduction plan and launch a consultation to engage with businesses on the matter.
  
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• Maximising value: edie to host free webinar on sustainability reporting

  12-04-2017 14:28
  
  Individuals and organisations looking to improve their sustainability reports and increase engagement with key stakeholders are are being encouraged to tune into a free, live edie webinar next month, focusing on maximising the value of reporting.
  
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• UK's planning system stifling circular economy progress, industry claims

  12-04-2017 13:44
  
  An "outdated" culture within many of Britain's planning authorities is causing punitive delays to new waste management projects and the system must be improved in order to develop more sustainable business models shaped by the circular economy.
  
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• Science solves the mystery of shoelaces coming undone

  12-04-2017 12:54 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists from the University of California in Berkeley have figured out why.
  
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• Scotland's adders emerge from hibernation – in pictures

  12-04-2017 12:52 via theguardian.com
  
  The adder (Vipera berus) is Britain’s only venomous snake. An adder bite can be very painful and cause a nasty inflammation. The males emerge from hibernation as early as February but do little until early April when the females come out Continue reading...
  
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• Government pours £6m into University of Sheffield's CCS research centre

  12-04-2017 12:49
  
  The UK Government has funnelled more than £6m into carbon capture and storage (CCS) research, with an additional £1.5m set to be generated from partner institutions to finance collaborative projects.
  
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• Pressure mounts on Defra to release environment strategy

  12-04-2017 11:59
  
  An array of sustainability and environmental experts have told edie the Government must "stop dithering" and publish its long-awaited 25-Year Environment Plan, after a leaked version of the document was criticised for providing "grand promises with zero detail".
  
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• Fracking activists in Lancashire lose high court bid to stop drilling

  12-04-2017 11:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Residents ‘dismayed’ after judges uphold decision to approve Cuadrilla shale gas operation in FyldeLancashire residents fighting to block a fracking site have said they are “truly dismayed” after losing a high court legal challenge.The Preston New Road Action Group and Gayzer Frackman, a professional clown, had applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision to approve Cuadrilla drilling for shale gas in Fylde. The group had argued five points of law had
  
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• Cycling in the 'Ayrshire Alps': welcome to the UK's only road cycling park

  12-04-2017 10:10 via theguardian.com
  
  The demise of Davie Bell memorial race has led to a fitting tribute to the legendary Scottish cyclistThe loss of a once popular road race from the UK cycling calendar is never a good thing, but a unique legacy has emerged from the ashes of one event in Scotland. The demise of the Davie Bell Memorial Race in 2015 – a National ‘A’ event which had been running since 1966 – prompted the organiser to look for other ways to promote cycling. Continue reading...
  
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• We must act immediately to save the Great Barrier Reef | Jules Howard

  12-04-2017 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  This spiralling, three-dimensional coral maze is bleached for the second year in a row, but it can recover – if we act immediatelyAnd so it begins: the end of days. The Great Barrier Reef is bleaching for the second year in a row and now, according to the results of helicopter surveys released on Monday, it is the middle part (all 300 miles-plus of it) that is suffering the awful reef stress that comes courtesy of a warming ocean. Related: Australia's politicians have betrayed the Great Ba
  
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• No, the Great Barrier Reef is not dead in the water. Not yet | Jules Howard

  12-04-2017 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  This spiralling, three-dimensional coral maze is bleached for the second year in a row, but it can recover – if we act immediatelyAnd so it begins: the end of days. The Great Barrier Reef is bleaching for the second year in a row and now, according to the results of helicopter surveys released on Monday, it is the middle part (all 300 miles-plus of it) that is suffering the awful reef stress that comes courtesy of a warming ocean. Related: Australia's politicians have betrayed the Great Ba
  
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• Footage shows wetlands blackened by Abbot Point coal dust, activists say

  12-04-2017 09:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Adani says it released water into the Caley valley wetlands after Cyclone Debbie, but claims photos showing apparent contamination are ‘misleading’New footage reveals the scale of coal dust contamination of nationally significant wetlands after Cyclone Debbie hit Adani’s Queensland port, environmentalists claim.Helicopter and drone flyovers recorded footage showing a large part of the Caley Valley wetlands “smothered” by a “thick black sludge of coal”, t
  
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• Caley valley wetlands footage shows coal contamination, say activists – video

  12-04-2017 09:15 via theguardian.com
  
  The Australian Conservation Foundation and Australian Marine Conservation Foundation say this footage shows the wetlands before and after the Abbot Point port water release, which caused visible coal dust contamination of Queensland wetland. After Cyclone Debbie, additional water was released from the Adani facility with government permission, but port manager Adani denies there has been visible contamination. The Queensland environment department is investigating Continue reading...
  
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• This land is your land: 19th-century US landscapes – in pictures

  12-04-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From epic vistas to the churn of industry, 19th-century American photographers captured a country beginning to define its identity Continue reading...
  
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• The man who interviewed the wind

  12-04-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  He has spent three decades making recordings for radio – but he has never managed to capture the wildest sound on earth. So, armed with his trusty shaggy dog on a stick, Tim Dee heads for the Wash to interview the windWhat do we really hear when we hear the wind? If you step from a wood into an open field, the sound changes, although it is the same wind blowing over both. A winter pine tree far from the coast makes the wind perform like an angry sea, while a neighbouring bare birch makes a
  
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• Meet the man taking Armagh's temperature

  12-04-2017 07:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The end may be in sight for one of the world's longest-running series of manual weather records.
  
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• UK butterflies worst hit in 2016 with 70% of species in decline, study finds

  12-04-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Mild winter, cold spring and late summer lead to fall in numbers as 40 of 57 species struggle to cope with fluctuating weatherButterflies in the UK have suffered one of their worst years on record, with 70% of all species experiencing a decline in numbers over the past year, according to conservationists.The annual UK butterfly monitoring scheme (UKBMS) found that 40 out of the 57 species studied saw numbers drop between 2015 and 2016, making 2016 the fourth worst year on record for the insects.
  
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• The bee-fly is a true sprite of spring

  12-04-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Croft Castle, Herefordshire The noble parasite is an actor in the uncanny drama of life feeding on lifeShe looks like a fly in a fur coat; her wings made of clear cellophane with black bat markings; her syringe proboscis not for piercing flesh but sipping nectar; she is either a blur of speed or a full stop. The bee-fly is a chimera of contradictions and as true a sprite of spring as any of the animals associated with the season.
  Sunlight forms pools under the ancient trees in the park at Croft
  
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• Mystery of why shoelaces come undone unravelled by science

  12-04-2017 05:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The authors say the research can be applied to other structures, such as DNA.
  
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• Katter MPs vow to block Queensland budget unless crocodiles culled

  12-04-2017 04:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Call for Palaszczuk government to allow crocodile-hunting safaris in far north Queensland follows string of recent attacks Queensland’s Katter Australian party MPs are threatening to block the upcoming state budget, unless the Palaszczuk government culls crocodiles.The Mount Isa MP, Robbie Katter, said he and fellow KAP MP Shane Knuth will block the budget unless the government supports their legislation to establish crocodile safaris in far north Queensland, along with other management st
  
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• Power prices are at record highs – but there’s a pleasant solution to fix that | Tristan Edis and Ric Brazzale

  12-04-2017 03:46 via theguardian.com
  
  What if the solution to Australia’s high energy prices is not more coal and gas, nor even another emissions reduction scheme, but energy auctions?Australia finds itself in an extraordinary, almost comical position. On the promise from Tony Abbott that we would become a low cost energy superpower, we abolished the carbon price and rolled back the renewable energy target by a fifth. And now we find ourselves with some of the highest wholesale electricity prices in the world, about double wha
  
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• Adani mine must stand on its own two feet, Labor's Jason Clare says

  12-04-2017 01:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Company should not receive $900m loan for rail line because it claims project is viable without it, shadow minister for resources saysAdani should not receive a $900m concessional loan for a rail line from its proposed Carmichael mine because the company claims the project is commercially viable without taxpayer funds, Jason Clare has said.Speaking on Radio National on Wednesday, the shadow resources and northern Australia minister said it would be “terrific” if the project went ahea
  
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• New shrimp species named after Pink Floyd

  12-04-2017 01:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A team of prog-loving scientists made a pact to honour their favourite band, Pink Floyd.
  
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