Environment news

• EPA requests information from Mercedes-Benz over emission levels

  28-02-2016 23:42
  Daimler said on Sunday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had requested information from its luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz to explain emissions levels in some of its cars. A spokesman for Daimler said it was fully cooperating with the request for information, and that Mercedes-Benz cars conformed with all rules and norms. Daimler said the EPA request for information came in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by law firm Hagens Berman on Feb. 18, 2016, in U.S. District Court for the
  
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• Ascending larks keep the bird-snarer busy: Country diary 100 years ago

  28-02-2016 23:30
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 4 march 1916As the snow melted from the middle of the broad meadow under the down, larks appeared, almost in a multitude, with one or two occasionally rising towards the sun, as if to start an early song, but soon settling again. The bird-snarer was busy taking them by the half-dozen, for it appears that there are epicures among us yet. A partner, he said, was on lower land a few miles away after plover; “a cold job, worth all the money.&r
  
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• Renewables agency invests in energy retailer that wants to sell less

  28-02-2016 20:04
  
  Arena puts $5m into a business model that aims to minimise electricity use, partly by pushing solar and batteriesThe Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) has invested $5m in Mojo Power, an electricity retailer that helps households consume less energy and is already taking customers in New South Wales. Related: ‘We’re 10 years behind the banks’: how Australian power giant AGL is playing catchup with the consumerContinue reading...
  
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• EU's ban on inefficient toasters delayed to avoid pro-Brexit press attack

  28-02-2016 17:57
  
  Measures to save 10m tonnes of CO2 emissions per year have been delayed amid concerns highlighted by ‘toastergate’The EU has put plans to regulate inefficient kettles and toasters into cold storage amid fears in Brussels that they could galvanise support for the leave campaign in the UK’s 23 June referendum.Mobile phones, lifts, hair- and hand-dryers and vending machines are also on a shortlist of products for increased regulation in 2015-17. The measures had been expected to s
  
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• Beavers return to Britain

  28-02-2016 15:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  Beavers are Britain's native aquatic engineers and their return to sites in Scotland and England is doing wonders for the local environment, write Nigel Willby & Alan Law: restoring wetlands, recreating natural river dynamics and ecology, filtering farm pollutants from water, and improving habitat for trout and other fish.In Knapdale, damming by beavers transformed a small pond into a wetland of a type and complexity probably unseen in Britain for centuries. On the Bamff estate on Tayside, w
  
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• Top lobbying group in historic green energy U-turn

  28-02-2016 14:17
  
  Energy UK, which represents big six providers, says it now supports phasing out coal-fired stations, after years of defending use of fossil fuels The UK’s biggest energy lobbying group has shifted its position on green energy and will start campaigning for low-carbon alternatives for the first time, in what environmental campaigners are describing as a watershed moment.Lawrence Slade, the chief executive of Energy UK, which represents the big six providers and has been regarded as a defend
  
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• No more monkey business: why primates should never be pets

  28-02-2016 08:59
  
  About 4,500 primates are in private hands in the UK – many of them suffering poor conditions. Is it time for a ban?Primate owner Laura was scanning the internet adverts for monkeys she could try to rescue when she spotted one from a man in the Cotswolds who was clearly finding caring for two common marmosets extremely difficult. This is a common problem: primates are wild animals and keeping them is complex, expensive and demanding.She contacted the man and agreed to collect the two a
  
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• Wilderness Society: C02 report demonstrates land clearing is out of control - video

  28-02-2016 08:03
  
  The national campaign director for The Wilderness Society believes the C02 report reveals many damning findings regarding the current level of tree clearing in Australia. Lyndon Schneiders says: ‘Out of all the sectors, the land-based sector, which includes the tree clearing, is the only one where emissions are dramatically increasing.’ Schneiders believes that over the last three years the increase has reportedly been as much as 70%. Continue reading...
  
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• The eco guide to outdoor wear | Lucy Siegle

  28-02-2016 07:00
  
  High-performance clothes are great for keeping you warm and dry, but can contain high levels of polluting toxinsThe wilderness nuts of old headed off on Nordic skis in sagging woollen leggings and handknitted sweaters. Modern wilderness wear is different. It’s high performance, engineered to aid air flow around the body.Some of this is clever design, but a lot is down to PFCs – perfluorinated chemicals. They repel grease and, crucially, water. It was a downer when we found out last y
  
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