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Energy efficiency: the foundation of the climate transition

RenewEconomy - Fri, 2017-11-10 09:49
Energy debate in Australia seems overly focused on supply side of the market - it should look more closely at demand.
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Trump emissions threat to US car industry

BBC - Fri, 2017-11-10 09:39
US car makers will suffer if President Trump eases emissions standards, California's governor says.
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Fiji told it must spend billions to adapt to climate change

The Guardian - Fri, 2017-11-10 07:37

At COP 23 talks in Bonn, Fiji has called on developed nations to help the world’s most vulnerable build resilience to climate change

To prepare for the rising temperatures, strengthening storms and higher sea levels in the coming decades, Fiji must spend an amount equivalent to its entire yearly gross domestic product over the next 10 years, according to the first comprehensive assessment of the small island nation’s vulnerability to climate change, compiled by its government with the assistance of the World Bank.

Released half-way through the COP23 in Bonn, which Fiji is presiding over, the report highlights five major interventions and 125 further actions that it says are necessary to achieve Fiji’s development objectives, while facing the potentially devastating impacts of climate change. Combined those actions would cost about US$4.5bn over the next decade.

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Some remote Australian communities have drinking water for only nine hours a day

The Conversation - Fri, 2017-11-10 05:21
Some remote Australian communities have access to drinking water for only nine hours a day but can use ten times the average of urban households. Cara Beal, Senior research fellow, Griffith University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Hurricane Maria devastation prompts Ocean XPRIZE rethink

BBC - Fri, 2017-11-10 04:37
September's Maria storm disrupts the international competition to find innovative ways to map the seafloor.
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Extinct wolf-sized otter had powerful bite

BBC - Fri, 2017-11-10 03:24
A giant otter that roamed China six million years ago had a surprisingly strong bite, say scientists.
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One nation, two tribes: opposing visions of US climate role on show in Bonn

The Guardian - Fri, 2017-11-10 02:10

Donald Trump has pulled the US out of the Paris accord – but other Americans are standing with the world to help fight the ‘existential crisis’ of global warming

Deep schisms in the US over climate change are on show at the UN climate talks in Bonn – where two sharply different visions of America’s role in addressing dangerous global warming have been put forward to the world.

Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement has created a vacuum into which dozens of state, city and business leaders have leapt, with the aim of convincing other countries at the international summit that the administration is out of kilter with the American people.

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UK's biggest solar farm planned for Kent coast

The Guardian - Fri, 2017-11-10 01:55

Subsidy-free plant would cover 900 acres of farmland near Great Expectations marshes at Faversham, dwarfing output of UK’s current largest solar site

An enormous solar power station is planned for the north Kent coast that would be the UK’s biggest and dwarf existing solar farms, providing a significant boost to an industry that has stalled since ministers halted subsidies 18 months ago.

Cleve Hill, a mile from the historic town of Faversham, would have five times the capacity of the UK’s current largest solar farm and provide enough power for around 110,000 households if it comes online in 2020 as proposed.

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UK 'will support' neonicotinoid pesticide ban

BBC - Fri, 2017-11-10 00:21
An extended ban on controversial neonicotinoid pesticides will be supported by the UK, Michael Gove says.
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EU split over use of major weedkiller glyphosate

BBC - Fri, 2017-11-10 00:05
Critics say widely-used glyphosate is harmful, as the EU postpones a decision on it.
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Tackling the toxic danger inside our cars

BBC - Thu, 2017-11-09 23:05
Pollution in a car can be worse than outside, as it traps nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot-like particles.
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Share your photos of bees

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-11-09 21:59

Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has said the UK will ban insect-harming pesticides, so we want to see your photos of bees

It’s been a terrible time to be an bee. But there may be cause for optimism, with the announcement that the UK will back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe.

Related: UK will back total ban on bee-harming pesticides, Michael Gove reveals

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Research Filter: Super coral, gene-corrected skin and MU69

ABC Environment - Thu, 2017-11-09 17:52
RN Drive sifts fact from fiction from the week's science news.
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Killer and cure: Venom at London's Natural History Museum – in pictures

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-11-09 17:00

From snakes to spiders, wasps to scorpions, the Natural History Museum’s new Venom exhibition promises to unnerve and entice, as it explores one of nature’s deadliest forces and its power to both kill and cure

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Michael Bloomberg’s ‘war on coal’ goes global with $50m fund

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-11-09 16:45

Exclusive: Billionaire’s campaign has seen half of US coal plants close in six years. Now he is targeting Europe and beyond to fight climate change and air pollution

The battle to end coal-burning, backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is expanding out of the US and around the world in its bid to reduce the global warming threat posed by the most polluting fossil fuel.

Bloomberg, a UN special envoy on climate change and former mayor of New York city, has funded a $164m campaign in the US since 2010, during which time more than half the nation’s coal-fired power plants have been closed.

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UK will back total ban on bee-harming pesticides, Michael Gove reveals

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-11-09 15:45

Exclusive: The latest research leads the environment secretary to overturn the government’s previous opposition, making a total EU ban much more likely

A total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe will be backed by the UK, environment secretary Michael Gove has revealed.

The decision reverses the government’s previous position and is justified by recent new evidence showing neonicotinoids have contaminated the whole landscape and cause damage to colonies of bees. It also follows the revelation that 75% of all flying insects have disappeared in Germany and probably much further afield, a discovery Gove said had shocked him.

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The evidence points in one direction – we must ban neonicotinoids | Michael Gove

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-11-09 15:45

With more and more evidence emerging that these pesticides harm bees and other insects, it would be irresponsible not to restrict their use

Two principles guide this government’s approach to the natural world. We want not just to protect but to enhance the environment. And we want our decisions to be informed at all times by rigorous scientific evidence.

Which is why when the science shows that our environment is in increasing danger we have to act. Like many others, I was deeply concerned by a recently published German study into the health of some insect populations. The Guardian covered the report in depth, not least because the statistics were so stark. Data gathered over 25 years appeared to indicate a 75% fall in the numbers of flying insects within those sites.

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Negative charge: why is Australia so slow at adopting electric cars?

The Conversation - Thu, 2017-11-09 14:33
While other countries race into the distance, Australia is still on the starting grid when it comes to electric cars. Why so slow? Because we don't have a proper recharging network. Graciela Metternicht, Professor of Environmental Geography, School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Danielle Drozdzewski, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Great Barrier Reef ad campaign is LNP 'greenwashing' – Labor

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-11-09 14:25

LNP leader Tim Nicholls says the advertising plan is to ‘overcome misleading green activist scare campaigns’

A Liberal National party plan to spend $4m on a Great Barrier Reef marketing campaign if it takes power in Queensland has drawn fire as an attempt at “greenwashing” in a void of climate policy.

The LNP leader, Tim Nicholls, said the advertising was to “overcome the misleading green activist scare campaigns which have talked down our greatest natural wonder”.

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