KITTY-KILL CHAOS

Conservation measures on Macquarie Island produce unintended consequences:

The cats were shot as they had been preying on the island's burrowing birds. But the newly rampant rabbits have devastated vegetation over 40% of the island. Clearing up the mess is expected to cost at least $16 million, and it remains unclear whether the island will ever fully recover. A landslip in 2006 that badly damaged a penguin colony has been blamed on rabbit destruction of the vegetation.

In other environmental news, a new study finds wind turbines to be a better energy source than nuclear not because of the radiation hazard but rather because of nuclear's carbon dioxide emissions:

Half of those emissions are caused by the time it takes to plan and build a nuclear power plant – time during which fossil fuels have to be burnt for energy.

Now there's a really good argument for getting moving on the construction of new nuclear plants.