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Combined output of Australia's large scale solar farms breaks through 1GW mark for first time.

The post Australia large scale solar output breaks through 1GW on Sunday appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Nauru is best known as a site of Australian offshore asylum detention. But everyone on the island - not just refugees - is struggling with the issue of environmental change that threatens their lives and homes. Anja Kanngieser, Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow, University of Wollongong Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Former governor general Michael Jeffery says soil health and regenerative farming is essential for security and carbon emissions

From the red soil of his hometown in the Western Australian outback town of Wiluna, Michael Jeffery very nearly became a farmer.

He opted for being a soldier instead, serving in Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam, where he was awarded the Military Cross and the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. After a distinguished military career, he served as governor of his home state of Western Australia and governor general of Australia – who represents the Queen, Australia’s head of state.

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Readers Eric Banks, Clare Hay, Michael Robinson, and Frances Middleton discuss the environmental and spiritual pros and cons of dishwashers

I have to take issue with Jo Steranka (How you can do your bit in the war against climate change, Letters, 18 October). Dishwashers are typically much more efficient than hand washing in terms of energy and water consumption. Research carried out by Christian Paul Richter (Usage of dishwashers: observation of consumer habits in the domestic environment, International Journal of Consumer Studies, 2011) on 200 households in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Britain, found that households with a dishwasher used on average 50% less water and 28% less energy per cleaned item than households that didn’t own a dishwasher. Even so, a higher degree of sustainability was identified because 20% of dishwasher cycles were not fully utilised and 52% operated at a temperature that was higher than necessary.

Furthermore, Jo Steranka states that “opinion pieces don’t help if they don’t offer practical solutions”; er, has she tried digging up a paved garden? Getting around a city (that isn’t London) without a car? Not buying new clothes until the old ones wear out? Get real, Jo! (Although I do agree about buying local produce and turning off the lights at bedtime – are there people who don’t?)

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A scheme at one Leeds’ CitiPark hopes to encourage recycling by giving motorists a 20p parking voucher for every bottle they bring in

It seems a great idea: take plastic bottles along to a car park to recycle, help rid the world of plastic pollution and get money off the cost of parking. This is the scheme running at the Leeds Merrion Centre CitiPark. For a month-long trial period, the company will collect every plastic bottle of at least 500ml brought into the car park. The bottle will be recycled and the motorist will get a 20p car parking voucher for each one. The process itself is quite straightforward: hand them to the attendant for a discount before paying. But will it catch on?

“It’s been going really well,” says parking attendant Richard Bedford. “One chap came in with 30 bottles. He only needed 15 to pay for his parking, so he’s bringing the rest back next week.” Apart from such isolated success stories, though, the car park isn’t exactly besieged by bottle-laden motorists when I arrive. Bedford estimates an average day’s take at 10 to 20 bottles, but behind him is a full crate, and he says hundreds have been recycled so far.

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Newly digitised pictures shine light on the first British reconnaissance trip to Everest, in 1921.

A deep-sea swimming sea cucumber has been filmed in the Southern Ocean off East Antarctica for the first time.

Creature filmed off east Antartica using technology developed by Australian researchers

A deep-sea cucumber known as a “headless chicken monster” has been filmed in the Southern Ocean for the first time using camera technology developed by Australian researchers.

The creature was filmed off east Antarctica and it is the first time the species has been seen in the area. 

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George Eustice’s boast that government strategy is working called untrue by vets and animal specialists

Government claims that the controversial badger cull is reducing tuberculosis rates in cattle have been undermined by a group of leading vets and animal welfare experts who have shared data that, they say, confirms it has made no difference.

Last month the farming minister George Eustice said: “Reductions in TB cases in Somerset and Gloucestershire are evidence that our strategy is delivering results.” But the group, which includes Iain McGill, the former government vet who helped expose the BSE cover-up, Adam Grogan, head of wildlife at the RSPCA, and Mark Jones, head of policy at the Born Free Foundation, disagrees.

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For the second time in two months, a long-held conservative seat is lost to an independent campaigning on climate and energy. But don't expect the idiocy of the Coalition to stop.

The post Wentworth wipe-out won’t shift Coalition on climate and energy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Fish eaters advised to ‘Say No’ due to environmental concerns surrounding Tasmania’s salmon farming industry

It’s one of Australia’s – and the world’s – favourite fish but Tasmanian Atlantic salmon should be off the menu for now, according to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, publishers of Australia’s independent sustainable seafood guide.

On Wednesday, the AMCS downgraded the farmed fish’s rating from an amber “Think Twice” to a red “Say No” due to ongoing environmental concerns. The previous review was in 2015.

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European settlers suspected Australia's high tropical forests hid native rhododendrons. Stuart Worboys, Laboratory and Technical Support Officer, Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

It was feared that Luzia, a 12,000-year-old fossil, had been totally lost in the Brazil fire.

One tremor was magnitude 0.3, the level beyond which experts say fracking has to proceed with caution

A series of small earthquakes have been detected in Lancashire close to the site where major fracking operations began this week.

The British Geological Survey, which provides impartial advice on environmental processes, recorded four tremors in the vicinity of the energy firm Cuadrilla’s site on Preston New Road near Blackpool on Friday.

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Tiny automated machines could soon take care of the entire growing process. Fewer chemicals, more efficient – where’s the downside?

In a quiet corner of rural Hampshire, a robot called Rachel is pootling around an overgrown field. With bright orange casing and a smartphone clipped to her back end, she looks like a cross between an expensive toy and the kind of rover used on space missions. Up close, she has four USB ports, a disc-like GPS receiver, and the nuts and bolts of a system called Lidar, which enables her to orient herself using laser beams. She cost around £2,000 to make.

Every three seconds, Rachel takes a closeup photograph of the plants and soil around her, which will build into a forensic map of the field and the wider farm beyond. After 20 minutes or so of this, she is momentarily disturbed by two of the farm’s dogs, unsure what to make of her.

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The Poralia rufescens is swimming off the coast of southern California in the Pacific Ocean.

Scheme launched by ethical investment platform Abundance offers 12% interest

A “green” investment that pays 12% interest and involves putting your money into a major tidal energy project was launched this week.

But that high rate indicates this is a great deal riskier than putting your money into a high street savings account, with no compensation if things go wrong. So this is not one for the risk-averse.

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Chinese ban on waste imports is significantly affecting UK councils’ ability to collect and recycle plastic

Major problems in the plastic recycling industry are costing local councils in England up to £500,000 extra a year, as they struggle to deal with the continuing fallout from import bans imposed by countries who are no longer able to take the UK’s waste.

A survey by the Local Government Association (LGA) revealed nearly half of councils who responded (52) say China’s ban is having a significant impact on their ability to collect and recycle plastic, due to rising costs. Fourteen councils across the country say their recycling costs have increased by an average of half a million pounds a year, in part because of rising processing charges per tonne.

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The survival of one of the rarest butterflies in the world is entirely reliant on a ant.

The sci-fi plan would use giant mirrors in space to light city streets, but scientists are sceptical.