What will happen to pollinators as the climate changes?

Twice a day, Lorne Covington walks his dogs around his 20 acres in Skaneateles, New York. 

Amber Kleinman observed hot, dry, windy weather this
summer in Paonia, Colorado. ‘Though there have been
 plenty of flowers, I have been surprised by how little
honey is being stored in the beehives,’ she said.

Covington’s lot is mostly wooded, with a four-acre wildflower meadow. Typically in July, he sees wasps, carpenter bees, and bumble bees buzzing around the flowers. This summer, the buzzing was for all practical purposes non-existent.

“We had a bumper crop of wildflowers this year,” Covington said. “But unlike previous years, there were just no bees.”

Covington isn’t alone in observing a lack of pollinators this summer. Sue Stroud reported fewer bees in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia. Judy Donnelly saw fewer bumble bees and wasps in Windham, Connecticut. And in Paonia, Colorado, Amber Kleinmann’s honey bees have been producing less honey than usual.

Read the story from Yale Climate Connections by Samatha Harrington - “What will happen to pollinators as the climate changes?”

Wet, warm start to winter for Australia

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest seasonal forecast is predicting the start of winter to be wet and warm for large swathes of Australia.

Wetter-than-average conditions are expected across the southeast between next month and July, with daytime temperatures forecast to be warmer than usual.

The bureau’s latest three monthly climate outlook comes after a series of sweltering days across NSW, Victoria and South Australia where April temperatures soared to record highs.

Senior climatologist Lynette Bettio said the forecast reflected warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures around New Zealand and in the Tasman sea.

‘‘This may cause lower pressures over eastern Australia with a swing towards above average rainfall in the far southeast,’’ she said on Thursday.

‘‘Northern Australia is also likely to receive above average rainfall, however we are coming into the dry season across the north so we don’t need large rainfall totals to exceed the median.

‘‘Days and nights are forecast to be warmer than average across the south and cooler than average across parts of northern Australia, especially in Queensland.’’ — AAP

AAP story from The Shepparton News - “Wet, warm start to winter for Australia."

New Nissan Leaf EV confirmed for Australia delivery

As customers in the UK begin taking delivery of Nissan’s next generation all-electric LEAF, news has emerged that the latest version of the world’s highest selling EV is due to arrive on Australian soil sometime after July this year, and before the end of June 2019.

The new Leaf EV from Nissan.

In a statement published on the Nissan website on Tuesday, the Japan-based auto giant said the new LEAF would go on sale in seven markets in Asia and Oceania during the coming fiscal year, including Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

The company is also exploring introducing the zero-emission car in other markets in the region, including Indonesia and the Philippines, it said.

As noted above, Nissan has led the global electric vehicle market on sales since the first model went on sale in 2010, with more than 300,000 cars sold over the past seven years.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Sophie Vorrath - “New Nissan Leaf EV confirmed for Australia delivery.”

(We continue to struggle with the idea that personally owned private transport is simply unsustainable in an energy constrained world. 

Electric or otherwise, the personal owned private transport is of itself energy-rich and is only viable because of a road network infrastructure paid for by the public - it’s about ensuring private profit at public expense. 

Any rhetoric arguing about the convenience and practicality of private transport can be matched easily with a sophisticated public transport system that can answer the needs of both freight and people. The answers to the problems exist, we simply need to the will to make them happen.

However, it is unlikely that the profit intent behind the private transport industry will not submit easily to a push from public transport enthusiasts, but seemingly unbeknown to many, the drive for public transport has an implacable ally in climate change and if we are to have any chance at all of avoiding the inadequate promise made in Paris in December of 2015 then the private vehicle, electric or otherwise, must give way to an advanced public transport infrastructure)

Another e-flow - but do we need it?

We're on the river most days, so we were watching for the environmental flush due to start on Saturday. By Sunday morning it was creeping over the sandbar and The Boss wasn't all that happy about it.

The next environmnental flow is happening but you can see
a dark strip low along the far bank, still damp from the last one....

He reckons the south- and east-facing banks are still damp from the last e-flow, which happened over a month in June to late July. That followed an autumn flush back in February for a month - now there's this one for 23 days and another one planned for November.

There's a few fingers in the e-flow pie: the water is owned by the Commonwealth Government after its program of buy-backs to meet the targets of the Murray Darling Plan and the responsibility for that water rests with the Environmental Water Holder.

Our Catchment Management Authority then works with the Water Holder to schedule the flows appropriately and Goulburn Murray Water, which runs the storages, actually releases it and warns its irrigators with pumps on the river that a flush is coming.

Read the story by The General on Country News - “Another e-flow - but do we need it?”