Around The Web

Aera Energy to install first-of-its-kind solar project to reduce oilfield emissions.

New Zealand's plan to create the world’s first humanitarian visa for climate refugees has to consider ways people from Pacific island nations actually want to be assisted. Nina Hall, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Ken Matthews, who is in charge of fixing NSW’s water administration, says he is ‘disappointed’ at lack of progress on prosecutions

Modern water meters need to be rolled out as a matter of urgency in the Barwon-Darling river system and prosecutions launched against breaches, the man charged with fixing New South Wales’s water administration has warned.

Immediately after the ABC Four Corners program that alleged large-scale water theft and meter tampering by some irrigators, the state government asked water expert Ken Matthews to review the system.

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Sceptics might call it crazy to run a clean power ‘extension cord’ all the way to Indonesia, but the ELEXI plan to export Pilbara generated renewable energy to Asia has a serious team behind it.

The Australian Government has accepted all 24 recommendations of the independent review of governance of the Authority and will immediately move to implement key actions.

A bacterium made with "unnatural" DNA assembles proteins - a key characteristic of a functioning organism.

Having children is an intimately personal decision. But what about climate scientists? How is their knowledge impacting parenthood?

Know your miner from your myna. Both are aggressive in different ways – discover why we’re killing one but never the other

• Vote for Australia’s bird of the year

A kookaburra nestles on my balcony and belts its deliciously rambunctious laugh, like an ape in a zoo. But, mid-cackle, it is interrupted by a series of urgent, high-pitched screams like sirens.

Three miner birds flutter in its face, screaming hysterically at it. At first, the kookaburra just gives the unrelenting interlopers an unblinking, nonchalant death stare before eventually giving in and moving on. The miners follow it and chase it out of the neighbourhood.

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Archaeologists believe they may have uncovered the first evidence of Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain.

Prehistoric women's manual work was tougher than rowing in today's elite boat crews, say scientists.

New research shows by the end of the century an increase in sea level will threaten the White House, early colonial settlements and other historic places

Large tracts of America’s east coast heritage are at risk from being wiped out by sea level rise, with the rising oceans set to threaten more than 13,000 archaeological and historic sites, according to new research.

Even a modest increase in sea level will imperil much of the south-eastern US’s heritage by the end of the century, researchers found, with 13,000 sites threatened by a 1m increase.

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How climate denial blogs misinform so many people with such poor scientific arguments.

The body of evidence supporting human-caused global warming is vast – too vast for climate denial blogs to attack it all. Instead they focus on what a new study published in the journal Bioscience calls “keystone dominoes.” These are individual pieces of evidence that capture peoples’ attention, like polar bears. The authors write:

These topics are used as “proxies” for AGW [human-caused global warming] in general; in other words, they represent keystone dominoes that are strategically placed in front of many hundreds of others, each representing a separate line of evidence for AGW. By appearing to knock over the keystone domino, audiences targeted by the communication may assume all other dominoes are toppled in a form of “dismissal by association.”

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New labelling guidelines suggest we should keep more of our fruit in the fridge. But not everything is suitable for cold storage – here’s a fruit-by-fruit guide

Is there anything more disappointing than biting into an apple, only to find it has gone all fluffy and soft? It happens all the time – and now we know why. According to a government initiative on food labelling, it is because we are not storing our Pink Lady apples in the fridge.

As part of a drive to reduce annual household food waste in the UK by 350,000 tonnes, labelling is changing. In future, it will include, among other things, a “little blue fridge” icon for foods that keep for longer in the fridge, including apples and oranges. Can this be right? Well, yes – but it’s a matter of timing. Here’s a guide to when to let fruit chill.

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A wildlife trust has asked people to get in touch if they spot the creatures.

Hunting animals with the biggest horns, tusks or manes could lead to extinction, according to a study.

The astrophysicist says at the time students weren't awarded Nobel Prizes.

Archaeologists say evidence indicates Caesar's invasion in 54BC began in Kent.

The experimental study is the first to directly show harm to songbirds, extending the known impacts of neonicotinoids beyond insects

The world’s most widely used insecticide may cause migrating songbirds to lose their sense of direction and suffer drastic weight loss, according to new research.

The work is significant because it is the first direct evidence that neonicotinoids can harm songbirds and their migration, and it adds to small but growing research suggesting the pesticides may damage wildlife far beyond bees and other insects.

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Supermarket packaging will carry new logos advising which items can be kept in the fridge, ensuring they last longer and reduce food waste

Bags of supermarket apples will carry a new logo advising consumers to keep them in the fridge to make them last longer as part of a shake-up of food labelling aimed aimed at cutting about 350,000 tonnes of domestic food waste – worth £1bn – by 2025.

The confusing and sometimes misleading “display by”, “best by” and “use by” dates on packaging is being simplified to encourage shoppers to get the most out of their larder, fridge and freezer.

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