Environment news

• Owls seeking prey by day: Country diary 100 years ago

  21-02-2016 23:30
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 25 February 1916I am inclined to repeat a question asked by a Keswick correspondent: “Is there anything funny about the owls just now?” We can hardly imagine that they object to lighting orders, but certainly they appear to have taken a fancy for daylight hunting. The Keswick correspondent reports two different barn owls out in the morning and afternoon several times during the last two mouths, and also that a Sussex friend tells him
  
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• Skylarks take to the air with an early seasonal warble

  21-02-2016 22:30
  
  It’s been a strange winter – or, perhaps I should say, a strange pseudo-spring. In the lanes around my Somerset home, snowdrops have been in full bloom since the middle of January, while a chorus of birds continues to sing in my garden.One Sunday morning we even had a visit from a smart male blackcap – a species that now spends the winter in the warmer setting of nearby Bristol, but usually shuns our chilly rural garden. This is our first wintering blackcap for almost a decade,
  
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• Colombian court bans oil, gas and mining operations in paramos

  21-02-2016 20:31
  
  Major environmental victory after loophole permitting operations in rare ecosystems is declared “unconstitutional”Colombia’s Constitutional Court has ruled against a controversial legal loophole permitting oil, gas and mining operations in the country’s paramos - high altitude eco-systems. Colombia’s paramos are the most extensive on earth and supply more than 70% of the country’s population with water, according to the Bogota-based Alexander von Humboldt Inst
  
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• CSIRO climate cuts will breach Paris agreement and cost economy – report

  21-02-2016 20:00
  
  Cuts to climate modelling and measuring research contradict Australia’s pledge to strengthen commitments to climate science, the Climate Council saysCuts to the CSIRO’s climate modelling and measuring research will breach Australia’s obligations under the recent Paris agreement and will result in huge costs to the economy, a report by Australia’s Climate Council has found.
  The report adds to a chorus of eminent bodies and individuals criticising the move, which the CSIRO
  
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• Julia Bradbury: Parents who don't insist on country walks are 'irresponsible'

  21-02-2016 17:12
  
  Julia Bradbury, the television presenter, says there is 'no excuse' not to get children out and about in the countryside
  
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• Sainsbury's lags behind rivals in plastic bag charity donations

  21-02-2016 16:03
  
  Supermarket gives 1p to charity, while Tesco hands over 3p a bagSainsbury’s is giving at least a third less to charity than any of its major rivals from 5p carrier bag charges intended to reduce plastic waste and raise cash for good causes.
  From October, large retailers have had to charge shoppers 5p each for every single use carrier bag handed out at the check-out in England and pass on the proceeds to charity. The bag tax rules say large retailers should donate all proceeds to good cause
  
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• Pictures of the day: 21 February 2016

  21-02-2016 14:31
  
  Vikings in York, 2016 FINA Diving World Cup and a historic ski race in Smrzovka, Czech Republic
  
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• Missing radioactive material found dumped in south Iraq

  21-02-2016 14:17
  A "highly dangerous" radioactive material that went missing in Iraq has been found dumped near a petrol station in the southern town of Zubair, environment ministry spokesman Ameer Ali said on Sunday. Ali said it had not been damaged and there were no concerns about radiation from the material, the loss of which raised concerns it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Islamic State militants. It was not immediately clear how the material ended up in Zubair, around 15 km (9 miles) southwest of
  
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• Fukushima impacts hidden from Japanese public

  21-02-2016 13:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Japanese were kept in the dark from the start of the Fukushima disaster about high radiation levels and their dangers to health, writes Linda Pentz Gunter. In order to proclaim the Fukushima area 'safe', the Government increased exposure limits to twenty times the international norm. Soon, many Fukushima refugees will be forced to return home to endure damaging levels of radiation.Once you enter a radiation controlled area, you aren’t supposed to drink water, let alone eat anything. Th
  
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• Raptor: A Journey Through Birds by James Macdonald Lockhart – review

  21-02-2016 10:30
  
  A beautifully written study of Britain’s birds of prey takes too little account of the controversy they arouseIn the opening chapter of Raptor, the author describes a Neolithic chambered tomb found on South Ronaldsay, Orkney. Among the remains of 340 people were the bones of 35 birds, two thirds of which belonged to white-tailed eagles. Archaeologists have concluded that the human corpses had been exposed so that they could be stripped of their flesh. The most likely agents of that cleansi
  
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• Iran, Oman hold talks to forge closer energy ties - Shana

  21-02-2016 10:21
  Iran and Oman are interested in pursuing closer ties and shared investments in the energy sector, Iran's oil minister was quoted as saying on Sunday after talks in Tehran with Oman's foreign minister. Bijan Zanganeh said the most important shared project between the two countries was a planned undersea gas pipeline to connect Iran's vast gas reserves to Omani liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants.
  
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• Home and dry? The flood victims who are putting up their own defences

  21-02-2016 07:59
  
  Unconvinced by the government’s plans, hard-hit homeowners are taking costly steps to protect their property
  Government pledges to spend billions of pounds on flood defences are failing to convince vulnerable householders, who are taking matters into their own hands. The government plans to spend £2.3bn on flood management and defences over the next six years. Yet, as UK residents are warned to expect more flooding after the devastation in Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire, some home
  
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• Saudi oil minister to face rival U.S. producers as price rout bites

  21-02-2016 07:06
  By Luc Cohen HOUSTON (Reuters) - This week, Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi will for the first time face the victims of his decision to keep oil pumps flowing despite a global glut: U.S. shale oil producers struggling to survive the worst price crash in years. While soaring U.S. shale output brought on by the hydraulic fracturing revolution contributed to oversupply, many blame the 70-percent price collapse in the past 20 months primarily on Naimi, seen as the oil market's most influential polic
  
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• The eco guide to action heroines | Lucy Siegle

  21-02-2016 07:00
  
  The rich history of eco-feminism goes back to the 1970s and is still going strongWanted: a new generation of feminist super heroes to stave off ecological catastrophe. Setsu Shigematsu, a California-based academic, has created the “Guardian Princesses” – seven female Disney-style cartoon characters, which she hopes will inspire enthusiasm for non-violent collective eco-action in the younger generation.There is a rich history of eco-feminism, starting from the coining of the ter
  
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• China to build ventilation 'corridors' in Beijing to help tackle air pollution

  21-02-2016 06:42
  
  Construction in zones created by connecting parks, rivers, lakes, highways and low building blocks, will be strictly controlled and obstacles to air flow removedAuthorities in Beijing are reportedly developing a network of ventilation “corridors” to help tackle the city’s notorious air pollution. Related: Beijing issues first pollution red alert as smog engulfs capitalContinue reading...
  
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• Beijing to build ventilation 'corridors' to help tackle smog

  21-02-2016 05:45
  Authorities in Beijing plan to develop a network of ventilation "corridors" to help tackle the city's notorious air pollution, China's state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday. Construction in the zones, which will be created by connecting parks, rivers, lakes, highways and low building blocks, will be strictly controlled and obstacles to air flow will be removed over time, Xinhua cited Wang Fei, deputy head of Beijing's urban planning committee, as saying. There will be five large corridors
  
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• Britain's Atlantis 'destroyed by storms'

  21-02-2016 05:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Evidence of violent storms that destroyed a lost town known as Britain's Atlantis are uncovered.
  
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