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Messing about on the River Murray and a FIFO miner turns chicken farmer
The end of coffee: could Australia save the world's beans?
Climate change may devastate the globe’s major coffee-growing regions through extreme weather events – but Australia could be the solution
If a future of relentless fires, droughts, superstorms and rising sea levels makes you feel like you need a strong caffeinated beverage, there is some bad news: climate change is coming for the world’s coffee beans.
Greg Meenahan, the partnership director at the non-profit institute World Coffee Research, puts it this way: “Demand for coffee is expected to double by the year 2050 and, if nothing is done, more than half of the world’s suitable coffee land will be pushed into unsuitability due to climate change. Without research and development, the coffee sector will need up to 180m more bags of coffee in 2050 than we are likely to have.”
Continue reading...How the rhino horn trade could help protect wild rhinos
Outback regeneration at Bon Bon station reserve – a picture essay
The property is within the traditional lands of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara people and was bought 10 years ago by Bush Heritage
It’s day two of my visit and the suspense is killing me as we slowly walk towards the last of the pitfall traps we are checking that day. A plastic drum that has been buried in the ground with its rim at surface level is metres away, the small trap a form of passive collection used during ecology studies. As she steps over the small fenceline that draws the animals in, elation washes over Kate Taylor’s face – there’s a painted dragon, bright blue and green. One of two managers of Bon Bon station reserve in the Australian outback, she hasn’t seen one of these small lizards for years. She gently picks it up as it wraps its claws around her index finger. The lizard barely reaches her second knuckle. Its colours are so vibrant and it feels like we just won the lottery.
Continue reading...Senate crossbench gave renewables $23bn boost by thwarting Abbott's plan
Exclusive: Decisions by Labor and crossbench to save clean energy agencies encouraged investment, report says
The Senate’s decisions to stop Tony Abbott abolishing clean energy agencies helped create renewable energy projects worth $23.4bn, a new report says.
The Australia Institute says decisions taken by Labor and the crossbench between 2013 and 2015 to save the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) have now secured $7.8bn in public funding and investment for clean energy.
Continue reading...London nurseries to get air purifiers after toxic air concerns
Mayor Sadiq Khan says toddlers’ exposure to air pollution is ‘inexcusable’
A group of state-run nurseries in London are to be given air filtration systems as concern grows about the impact of the UK’s toxic air on some of the capital’s youngest and most vulnerable residents.
Five nurseries have been selected for the purifiers in the first wave, with 20 nurseries being audited to measure the extent of toddlers’ exposure to the potentially deadly particles from vehicles.
Continue reading...'Oh gosh!' Sushi king pays record price for bluefin tuna – video
A record $3.1m (£2.4m) has been paid for a giant bluefin tuna at Tokyo’s new fish market, which replaced the world-famous Tsukiji late last year. It was paid by sushi tycoon Kiyoshi Kimura, who runs the popular Sushi Zanmai chain
Winter birds thrill Norfolk wildlife photographers
London's ultra-low emission zone: good or bad idea?
Campaigners say it will cut pollution, but opponents claim it will hit poor people hardest
“I’m just really glad the ULEZ is coming. Children’s lungs can’t wait,” says Jemima Hartshorn, a Brixton resident who helped set up campaign group Mums For Lungs.
Continue reading...'Appalling' toilets and rule-breaking as US shutdown hits national parks
Deaths reported at several sites amid staffing shortages, as local teams lend a hand at Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and elsewhere
Human waste by the side of a busy road in Yosemite. Overflowing toilets in the Grand Canyon. The Rocky Mountains inaccessible because of unplowed roads.
And in all these places, ordinary people stepping in to try to save some of America’s most revered landmarks from being overrun.
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