Environment news

• Nature awakens early from winter slumber: Country diary 100 years ago

  31-01-2016 23:30
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 4 February 1916The sleepers awaken; indeed in many cases winter slumbers have been light and fitful. Up and down the lane, between and round the black-budded ashes and above the grassy borders, where pale green nettles form thick and treacherous beds for those who would pick the first flowers, the bats fly at dusk. Early this week it was not one bold straggler who had ventured out to test the weather, but whole colonies were on the wing; in less
  
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• British pilot in Tanzania 'manoeuvred ​to save colleague​​ before death'

  31-01-2016 18:38
  
  Three men have been arrested with others being sought after Roger Gower was killed tracking elephant poachers in helicopterA British pilot who was shot dead by an elephant poaching gang manoeuvred his helicopter to save his colleague’s life before he collapsed and died, according to reports.Roger Gower died while tracking poachers in the Maswa game reserve in the north of the country. Officials said his helicopter crashed after being hit by rounds from an AK-47 rifle fired from the ground
  
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• Baghdad and Iraqi Kurds agree to cooperate on economic reform

  31-01-2016 16:29
  By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A delegation from Iraq's cash-strapped Kurdistan region agreed on Sunday with the government in Baghdad to cooperate on reforms aimed at dealing with an acute economic crisis afflicting them both. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and federal authorities in Baghdad rely heavily on oil export revenue and have been hit hard by the global slump in crude prices.
  
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• Spending watchdog to examine scrapping of £1bn carbon capture plan

  31-01-2016 16:04
  
  National Audit Office to investigate taxpayer value for money in George Osborne’s decision to halt CCS and question plans to secure UK energy supplyThe National Audit Office is to investigate George Osborne’s decision to scrap a £1bn prototype carbon capture scheme which cost the taxpayer at least £60m, a letter seen by the Guardian shows.
  The spending watchdog said it would be looking into the expenses incurred in running, and then prematurely halting, a CCS auction. It
  
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• Three men arrested over shooting down of British pilot in Tanzania

  31-01-2016 15:18
  
  Suspects cooperating with police, officials say, after helicopter pilot Roger Gower was killed while tracking elephant poachersThree men have been arrested over the shooting down of a British pilot during a helicopter operation to track down elephant killers in Tanzania.Roger Gower died while tracking poachers in the Maswa game reserve in the north of the country. Officials said his helicopter crashed after being hit by rounds from an AK-47 rifle fired from the ground on Friday. Continue reading
  
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• Iowa - first in primaries, first in wind power

  31-01-2016 14:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  As presidential contenders gather in Iowa for the beginning of the party selection season, they may have noticed a lot of wind turbines, writes Zachary Davies Boren. And if they have any sense, they will find only nice things to say about them. Wind supplies 30% of the state's power, more than any other US state, and Iowans are all for it. Ted Cruz, mind your words!Today, there are 12 factories in Iowa that build wind-related parts and materials, and wind supports as many as 7,000 jobs. Furtherm
  
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• Tanzania searches for elephant poacher killers of British pilot

  31-01-2016 13:50
  
  Search begins after Roger Gower died when his helicopter was shot down over the Maswa game reserve on FridayAuthorities in Tanzania have launched a search after poachers shot down a helicopter and its British pilot during an operation to track down elephant killers, officials have said. British pilot Roger Gower was tracking poachers on Friday in the Maswa game reserve when he died after his helicopter crashed after being hit by an AK-47 rifle fired from the ground, Tanzania’s tourism and
  
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• Iraqi Kurdish delegation visits Baghdad for talks

  31-01-2016 13:21
  A senior delegation from Iraq's Kurdish north held talks in Baghdad with the government on Sunday, a spokesman said, after weeks of warnings from officials in the autonomous region that it faced an economic collapse. Both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) rely heavily on oil export revenue and have been hit hard by the global slump in crude prices. The delegation led by KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani met with Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other senior Iraqi go
  
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• Tell the truth, ExxonMobil: a low-carbon future is affordable – and necessary

  31-01-2016 13:00
  
  Exxon’s narrative of preferring, and even encouraging, inaction in the face of climate change is the oil giant’s well-established modus operandiOver the past year the price of oil has collapsed and taken ExxonMobil’s share price with it. As the oil giant prepares to release its latest set of results this week, the company continues to show little genuine interest in preparing for a less carbon-intensive future.Even as world leaders gathered in Paris for the recent climate summi
  
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• Aberdeen should go green, not back to black

  31-01-2016 12:18
  
  Aberdeen and the UK oil industry have been promised £500m in state help while support for renewables and carbon capture has been slashed. The future of the UK’s energy capital should be green, not blackThat the government should step in with £250m to help ailing Aberdeen, the centre of Britain’s oil and gas industry, seems right given the billions in tax revenues ministers have extracted from the North Sea over several decades. And though it might seem counterintuitive to
  
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• Saudi Arabia didn't make output cut proposal - Saudi source to Arabiya TV

  31-01-2016 10:52
  Saudi Arabia was not the source of a proposal to cut oil production that Russia was studying, al-Arabiya television reported on Sunday, quoting an unnamed Saudi source. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that OPEC had proposed output cuts of up to 5 percent to help reduce a glut of crude and prop up sinking prices, in what would be the first such deal globally in over a decade. It was not clear if Novak was referring to a months-old proposal by OPEC members Venezuela and Al
  
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• Pictures of the day: 31 January 2016

  31-01-2016 10:06
  
  Today: Ice skating, antelopes and the Big Garden Birdwatch
  
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• RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch: World's largest wildlife survey gets under way

  31-01-2016 09:57
  
  The mild weather means the annual RSPB survey of Britain's birds may produce the most unusual results in its 37-year history
  
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• What is holding back the growth of solar power?

  31-01-2016 09:00
  
  Solar sector needs better power storage, grid infrastructure and government support to meet bullish growth predictionsSixty years ago, the price of solar panels was astronomical. At a cost of $1,910 (£1,350) per watt in today’s money, the only practical use for them was in space on the US Vanguard 1 satellite, which launched in 1958.
  But slowly and then precipitously the price of building a solar cell came down. Today it is less than $0.80 (£0.55) per watt. The subsequent proli
  
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• The eco guide to planting more trees | Lucy Siegle

  31-01-2016 07:00
  
  In the UK we need to double our planting rate over the next 50 years if we want our woodlands to surviveIt is hard to overestimate the value of trees. They are carbon sinks that keep us alive. They suck up pollution and soak up water. For more ways in which trees rock, the Trees and Design Action Group has a list in its report, No Trees No Future – an apocalyptic title that highlights their importance.Yet, although we may profess to love trees, the UK is one of the least-wooded countries i
  
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• Blooming January! Wildflower species think spring’s here

  31-01-2016 01:06
  
  More than 600 varieties of plant are already flowering, according to a new survey, long before springFrom London’s Walthamstow marshes to Thirsk in North Yorkshire, the mayflower has been in unprecedented early bloom.A survey by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) found that just over 600 wildflower species have begun to bloom across Britain and Ireland, far more than the 20-30 that are usually expected at this time of year. Continue reading...
  
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• Here is the weather forecast for the next five years: even hotter

  31-01-2016 01:05
  
  Long-range forecast predicts generally upward temperature trend, possibly interrupted by La Niña event in 2017Global temperatures will continue to soar over the next 12 months as rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions and El Niño combine to bring more record-breaking warmth to the planet.According to the Met Office’s forecast for the next five years, 2016 is likely to be the warmest since records began. Then in 2017 there will be a dip as the effects of El Niño diss
  
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