The country, which has more 300 days of sunshine a year, has embraced rooftop systems that harness the sun’s energy
The Thriamvos company truck pulls up at noon outside the four-storey building in the heart of Nicosia.
It’s the third rooftop installation of a solar-powered water heating system that Petros Mihali and his assistant, Soteris, have made in the Cypriot capital since their working day began at 7am.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/19/2024 - 23:00
09/19/2024 - 23:00
In a Guardian interview, Tony Juniper says housebuilding plans could be an opportunity to create ‘wild belts’ around cities to help habitat and species recovery
The collapse in British butterfly populations is a “warning from nature” about the resilience of the UK’s ecosystems, says England’s nature chief, raising concerns about threats to national food security as the planet continues to heat.
Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, says new data showing a sharp fall in butterfly populations this summer was probably the consequence of habitat loss and the use of pesticides, making the insects less resilient to extreme weather fluctuations: the scorching heat and wetter weather driven by global heating.
Continue reading...
09/19/2024 - 14:00
Student-led analyses raise concerns of conflict of interest at six universities, including Princeton, Columbia and Cornell
Prestigious US universities are raking in millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests, raising concerns about conflicts of interest. And one university even appears to have owned a petroleum company from which it has earned millions of dollars, according to a spate of new reports produced by student organizers.
The six analyses, released Wednesday, focus on American University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Princeton University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and University of California, San Diego. They were written by campus organizers at each respective institution and released by Campus Climate Network, an international student-led coalition that is pushing colleges to cut ties with big oil.
Continue reading...
09/19/2024 - 12:00
Around the US, policies empower school staff to view an unpaid food tab as proof of possible abuse
Earlier this year, administrators at South Mebane elementary in North Carolina sparked outrage – and a rushed community fundraising effort – after they issued a terse warning to parents in a school newsletter: students with lunch debt would not be allowed to attend an upcoming dance.
Community members donated more than $4,000 in three days to ensure no students were excluded. But while the newsletter raised worries that students in the Alamance-Burlington school system might be singled out for money problems, the district’s meal policy contains a far more serious warning to families: repeated failure to pay for school meals can result in a referral to child welfare services for neglect.
Continue reading...
09/19/2024 - 10:00
Ken Done, Jonathan Zawada, Blak Douglas and others created companion pieces to children’s works celebrating sharks and rays. They’re now on display at the Australian Museum
Continue reading...
09/19/2024 - 10:00
Victoria is home to perhaps the largest population and the only mainland state with ‘legislative relic’ of protections
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Land holders and managers along with landcare and environment groups want Victoria to remove protections for feral deer, as booming populations wreak havoc on agriculture and the local environment.
Jordan Crook, from the Victorian National Parks Association, said recognising deer as pests – alongside foxes, rabbits and pigs – would bring Victoria in line with the rest of mainland Australia.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...
09/19/2024 - 10:00
In West Africa, Pygmy hippos are said to carry a diamond in their mouths, which they use to light their way through the forest
The thing to know about the pygmy hippopotamus named Moo Deng is that she is angry, but also she is sweet. In photographs, she is often blurry and at all times, she is shiny. She secretes something known as “blood sweat” which is actually her sunscreen.
She is a hippopotamidae. She is stout. She runs like a piglet and has a snout like a very, very new puppy’s. She is very fast.
Continue reading...
09/19/2024 - 10:00
Opposition disputes costings in study and accuses authors of cherrypicking ‘worst-case scenario projects’ from around the world
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
The Coalition’s plan for seven nuclear power plants would lift power bills for average households by $665 a year based on estimated costs of six overseas nuclear projects, according to an Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis report.
The Ieefa findings built on the CSIRO’s GenCost studies that have shown nuclear energy to be the most expensive form of new power generation. It assessed recent construction costs at plants in the US, UK, Finland and France, and two proposed plants – one in the Czech Republic and an abandoned small modular reactor in the US.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...
09/19/2024 - 08:30
Campaigners criticise decision to scrap tax introduced in 2018 amid rise of ‘flight shame’ movement
Campaigners have accused the Swedish government of doing “everything in its power to stop climate action” after it cut a tax on flying, despite admitting that it would increase emissions.
The flight tax, aimed at cutting pollution from aviation, was introduced in 2018, amid the rise of the “flight shame” (flygskam) movement popularised by Greta Thunberg.
Continue reading...
09/19/2024 - 07:48
Automotive lobby group warns ‘multibillion-euro fines’ will punish manufacturers without relaxation of rules
Europe’s car industry has called for the relaxation of EU emissions targets after sales of electric cars stalled further in August, adding to growing political pressure that threatens to slow the transition away from fossil fuels.
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), a lobby group, said that its members could face “multibillion-euro fines” because the shift to electric production has not been quick enough to meet the EU targets.
Continue reading...
