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Country diary: starlings dot the lighthouse roof like currants on a bun

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-11-13 15:30

St Mary’s Island, Northumberland Children with fluorescent nets peer into plastic buckets; their cries of excitement echoed by the piping of seabirds

Heading south on the coastal path, we leave Old Hartley village, drawn magnetically by St Mary’s Island with its tall white lighthouse. The sea is a muted grey, with two vast container ships at rest near its meeting with a paler sky.

The footpath skirts a tufty hillock where a kestrel hovers over rough grass, fenced off from the path by chestnut paling. I catch the medicinal scent of mugwort, its glaucous leaves curling and turning winter brown. The scrubby clifftops are a tangle of rose briars and brambles, safe thickets for stonechat and wren. Amongst the windblown tussocks are seedheads of wild carrot, yarrow and knapweed, with late flowers of red clover.

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Know your NEM: Queensland poll – what are the odds?

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 14:17
Queensland energy politics has something for everyone – including a new coal plant – but bookmakers are backing the state Labor. Meanwhile, on the NEM...
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Wind turbine collapse under investigation at Antarctic research centre

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 14:09
One of two wind turbines that help to power Australia's Mawson research station in Antarctica has partially collapsed.
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Sugar vs solar, round 2: 60MW Qld project stalls after opposition from cane farmers

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 13:42
ESCO Pacific's proposed 60MW Mirani Solar Farm has failed to win approval from the local council, after strong opposition from local sugar can growers.
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Climate change spurs Medibank fossil fuel divestment

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 13:41
Medibank’s announcement it will divest tens of millions of dollars from fossil fuels due to the ‘health effects of climate change’ has been welcomed by environmental finance group Market Forces.
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South Australia’s new power plant ready before summer

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 13:39
South Australia now has access to an additional 276 MW of electricity generation, with the state’s new power plant installed in time for the warmer summer months.
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Wind farm researchers found to have no human ethics approval

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 12:13
A new research paper into the health impacts of wind farms has raised serious concerns over academic credibility.
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Medibank drops fossil-fuel investments worth tens of millions of dollars

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-11-13 11:26

Australia’s largest private health insurer says it ‘acknowledges the science of climate change and the impacts on human health’

Australia’s largest private health insurer, Medibank, will shed tens of millions of dollars in fossil-fuel investments because of the effects of climate change on human health.

In a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange before its annual general meeting in Melbourne on Monday, its chair, Elizabeth Alexander, said the company would move to low-carbon investments “in line with our commitment to the health and wellbeing of our customers”.

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Qld Labor ups ante on renewables – more ambition, new technology

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 11:24
Labor commits to "at least" 50% renewables by 2030, and promises $50m for first large scale solar tower and storage plant. Premier hails technologies that can power Queensland 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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CWP proposes 250MW solar thermal + storage near Townsville

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 11:23
CWP Renewables proposes 250MW solar tower and storage project near Townsville, while SolarReserve looking at six different projects in Queensland.
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100% global renewable electricity more cost-effective than current system

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 11:14
Making a global transition to 100% renewable electricity grid has long been a dream of many, and new research shows it is a viable reality.
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National Energy Guarantee’s bizarre approach to reliability

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 10:15
The more we look at the NEG, the more bizarre it gets. And it seems disrespectful, or even arrogant, of the ESB to think an overnight thought bubble is going to be superior to carefully developed process in overseas markets.
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Impact Investment Group appoints new CEO: Daniel Madhavan

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2017-11-13 09:12
Leading Australian impact fund manager Impact Investment Group is proud to announce the appointment of Daniel Madhavan as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
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'Successful failures' – the problem with food banks

The Conversation - Mon, 2017-11-13 04:56
Foodbanks were originally established as a temporary measure to alleviate food insecurity. But have they become an excuse for governments not to deal properly with the problem? Nick Rose, Lecturer, William Angliss Institute Susan Booth, Casual Academic, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Rocket blasts off for ISS one day late

BBC - Mon, 2017-11-13 03:18
A small plane entering the airspace had delayed Saturday's launch from Virginia in the US.
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Queensland land clearing could become 'tsunami', say conservation groups

The Guardian - Mon, 2017-11-13 03:00

Notification of planned clearing is up 30% in the past year compared with the previous three-year average

A dramatic land-clearing surge in Queensland could turn into a “tsunami” in the coming year, say conservationists, the rate of notifications of planned clearing rising 30% in the past year compared with the previous three-year average.

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Lincoln Gap wind farm near Port Augusta to add battery storage

RenewEconomy - Sun, 2017-11-12 23:01
Lincoln Gap wind project to add "unsubsidised" battery storage - the third wind farm to commit to storage in South Australia in recent months.
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Brexit: Environment watchdog planned says Gove

BBC - Sun, 2017-11-12 22:56
Minister Michael Gove insists environmental standards won't be sacrificed.
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Congo basin’s peaty swamps are new front in climate change battle

The Guardian - Sun, 2017-11-12 10:05
Ancient peatlands that store huge amounts of carbon are under threat from logging

Stumbling on submerged roots, attacked by bees and wading waist-deep through leech-infested water, the three researchers and their Pygmy guides progress at just 100 metres an hour through the largest and least-explored tropical bog in the world.

The group halt and unpack what looks like a spear, which is plunged over and over again into the waterlogged forest floor. Each time it brings up a metre-long core of rich, black peat made up of partly decomposed leaves and ancient plantlife. The deepest the steel blade reaches before meeting the underlying clay is 3.7 metres.

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Loving Blue Planet? Go one better and take a real submarine trip to the deep

The Guardian - Sun, 2017-11-12 10:04
The new must-have accessory for cruise liners and luxury yachts is a bubble-shaped submersible

The unknowable expanse of the oceans has become a little more familiar after Blue Planet II. Now it is set to become more familiar still to tourists with enough cash to spare.

The BBC series is the most-watched show of 2017, with 14.1 million viewers tuning in for unseen wonders like cannibalistic Humboldt squid, methane belching from the ocean floor and an underwater lake of brine. Scenes like these are beyond the view of anyone except TV crews, scientists and explorers – but not for much longer. Submarine tourism is riding a wave of interest that is likely to swell as the series continues.

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