Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Colossal Bioscience is adding the extinct animal to its revival wishlist, joining the woolly mammoth, dodo and thylacine. But scepticism is growing Standing more than three metres (10ft) high, the giant moa is the tallest bird known to have walked on Earth. For thousands of years, the wingless herbivore patrolled New Zealand, feasting on trees and shrubs, until the arrival of humans. Today, records of the enormous animal survive only in Māori oral histories, as well as thousands of discoveries of bone, mummified flesh and the odd feather. But this week, the US start-up Colossal Biosciences has announced that the giant moa has joined the woolly mammoth, dodo and thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, on its list of animals that it is trying to bring back from the dead. The announcement has provoked public excitement – and deep scepticism from many experts about whether it is possible to resurrect the bird, which disappeared a century after the arrival of early Polynesian settlers in New Zealand about 600 years ago. Continue reading...

The imperative ought to be to bear down on costs for consumers, starting with a more pragmatic approach to generation targets The chief executive of Ofgem, Jonathan Brearley, backed zonal pricing. Fintan Slye, the head of the National Energy System Operator, also supported a system that could have led to different parts of Great Britain charging different rates for their electricity. Chris Stark, the head of the “mission control” unit within Ed Miliband’s energy department, declared himself to be “zonal curious”. But it’s not going to happen. After intense lobbying from both sides of the great philosophical divide in energy-land, Miliband has killed the zonal option. The policy wonks are now obliged to go back to fiddling with internal network charges – the fees paid by generators to access the transmission network – to calculate the sweet spots to encourage more renewable generation where it’s most needed, while not stifling it completely in places where, for example, it is windy. That means yet more rounds of consultation. Continue reading...

Ecologist says the native fish is important for ecosystems as they are a food source for bigger fish and birds such as pelicans, cormorants and gulls Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Residents from the New South Wales central west town of Lake Cargelligo first started to notice fish dying in their local lake two weeks ago. Since then, officials have estimated thousands of bony herring, a native Australian fish, have perished. They suspect a drop in water temperature at the lake has triggered what is known as “winter die off”. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Campaigners say Ofwat ‘subservient to industry and its rampaging pursuit of profit’ after illegal sewage discharges South West Water has agreed to pay a £24m penalty for illegal sewage discharges into the environment from its treatment works. The regulator for the water and wastewater sector in England and Wales, Ofwat, says the company, which has 1.8 million customers in Cornwall, Devon, the Isles of Scilly and parts of Dorset and Somerset, is being penalised for dumping sewage in breach of its legal permit conditions. Continue reading...