Bees and other pollinators are in trouble — so much so that many of them are facing extinction, according to a new report.
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Bees And Other Pollinators Are Facing Extinction
Bees and other pollinators are in trouble — so much so that many of them are facing extinction, according to a new report.
The report, released Friday by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), is a two-year assessment of the threats facing pollinators — both vertebrates, such as birds and bats, and invertebrates, such as bees, butterflies, and other insects. It noted that, in some regions, 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species are so threatened by myriad environmental impacts that they’re facing extinction, with butterflies and bees seeing the highest risk. Among vertebrates, 16.5 percent of species are threatened by extinction worldwide. Pollinators are a major group: there are 20,000 species of wild bees across the globe, the report notes, and many of them haven’t been identified yet.
Pollinators are also a hugely important group of animals. Almost 90 percent of wild flowering plants depend on pollination by animals, and 75 percent of food crops around the world depend on pollination. Globally, $235 – $577 billion worth of global crops are affected by pollinators each year, the report found.
China Redoubles Its War On Coal
The Chinese have shut inefficient coal power plants, closed countless mines, slashed imports, and adopted a slew of policies to scale back coal use by some of their biggest industrial coal consumers — cement, steel, iron, and power.
Coal use falls further as China plans massive layoffs
China on Monday reported that its coal consumption dropped 3.7 percent between 2014 and 2015 as the country grapples with a struggling economy and urban air pollution, and begins work on meeting its climate commitments.
The fall in coal use last year follows a 2.9 percent drop in 2014. In response to its declining consumption, government officials also announced Monday that the country plans to lay off about 1.8 million coal and steel workers as thousands of coal mines shutter across the country.
Land-clearing surge in Queensland to wipe out Direct Action gains
In just three years the rate of clearing will create enough additional carbon dioxide emissions to cancel out emissions savings the government says it will make by paying farmers $670m to stop cutting down trees
The Truth About Battery Ready Solar Systems
Most homeowners I speak to are really keen to get batteries.
Just not right now.
They want to wait a few years until the price has come down substantially. And who can blame them when a typical battery system in 2016 has a payback of 20 years but only carries a 10 year warranty.
So clued up homeowners looking to buy solar are really keen to get a system that they can easily add batteries to in the future.
Solar companies have caught on to this and we are starting to see solar systems sold without batteries but advertised as ‘battery ready’.
Here at SolarQuotes we are getting more and more questions about what ‘battery ready’ actually means in these adverts, and the best way to buy a solar system that really is battery ready.
The truth is that ‘battery ready’ can mean lots of things. Many of the ads I have seen are technically correct – in that you can add batteries in the future – but probably not as easily, or with the functionality that many people will be expecting.
