Environment news

• Australian first: Newstead aims to run on 100% renewable energy within five years

  29-02-2016 23:43
  
  Agreement with energy company Powercor will see Victorian town move to solar power, save money and perhaps become a model for other towns The quiet Victorian town of Newstead – population approaching 500 – has a big ambition: to source all its electricity needs without burning any fossil fuels at all. Within five years, it wants all of its power to come from renewable energy sources.Newstead is not unique in that goal. At least a dozen towns around Australia, including Yackandandah,
  
  Read more

• USDA rejects scientist's charge that it tried to curb negative pesticide research

  29-02-2016 23:16
  
  Nonprofit released confidential decision in complex case involving monarch butterflies, scientific freedom and the safety of the nation’s food supply Federal officials have rejected a complaint by an entomologist who charged that the government has tried to suppress negative research findings about a widely used pesticide, in a complex case involving monarch butterflies, scientific freedom and the safety of the nation’s food supply. The confidential decision by the United States Depa
  
  Read more

• Government rejects scientist's claim it tried to cover up his pesticide research

  29-02-2016 23:16
  
  Nonprofit released confidential decision in complex case involving monarch butterflies, scientific freedom and the safety of the nation’s food supply Federal officials have rejected a complaint by an entomologist who charged that the government has tried to suppress negative research findings about a widely used pesticide, in a complex case involving monarch butterflies, scientific freedom and the safety of the nation’s food supply. The confidential decision by the United States Depa
  
  Read more

• Weatherwatch: Temperature inversions are trap for moisture and pollution

  29-02-2016 22:30
  
  A dog-walking friend described how, having set off from the bottom of the downs in Sussex in thick mist and dressed for the freezing temperatures, he found himself in bright sunshine as he walked uphill.By the time he had reached the hilltop, he had to remove a couple of layers of clothing because the temperature had risen to 12C (54F). Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Oil rise 3 percent as China moves to boost economy, crude output drops

  29-02-2016 21:54
  
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped 3 percent on Monday after China moved to boost its slowing economy, a drop in crude output from OPEC and the U.S., and a pledge by Saudi Arabia to limit market volatility, suggesting a 20-month selloff could be hitting a bottom. China, the world's largest oil importer, cut its reserve requirement ratio, the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves, for a fifth time in a year. Saudi Arabia, working with Venezuela and Qatar and non-OPEC p
  
  Read more

• Are they still afraid of the big bad wolf in Finland? | Patrick Barkham

  29-02-2016 20:41
  
  The animals are being slaughtered – yet other European nations are able to live alongside lupines. It seems hunters don’t want to give up their total control of the countrysideThere’s been a massacre in Finland. The country, which from afar looks to epitomise sustainable living, has slaughtered a third of its wolves this winter. Seventy-five wolves have been killed since the end of August: 43 in a government-sanctioned cull, and most of the rest under a licence system
  
  Read more

• How Leonardo DiCaprio became one of the world's top climate change champions

  29-02-2016 20:30
  
  The Oscar-winning actor’s environmental activism may not quite stretch back to What’s Eating Gilbert Grape but he has steadily schooled himself on the oceans and climate change since the 1990sLeonardo DiCaprio was a climate champion long before the actor wrapped himself in an animal carcass, vomited up raw bison liver, and risked hypothermia for his Oscar-winning role in Revenant.DiCaprio used his acceptance speech for best actor to urge a global audience to reject the “politic
  
  Read more

• VIDEO: 'Dragon mum' guards her precious eggs

  29-02-2016 20:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Infrared footage shows a female olm - a bizarre, blind amphibian - guarding her eggs in a Slovenian cave.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• VIDEO: The power station inside a mountain

  29-02-2016 19:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scottish Power is planning to double the size of its hydro-electric power plant which creates and stores energy.
  
  Read more

• UK consumes far less than a decade ago – 'peak stuff' or something else?

  29-02-2016 19:02
  
  From crops to energy and metals, average material consumption fell from 15 tonnes in 2001 to just over 10 tonnes in 2013The amount of “stuff” used in the UK – including food, fuel, metals and building materials – has fallen dramatically since 2001, according to official government figures.The Office for National Statistics data released on Monday reveals that on average people used 15 tonnes of material in 2001 compared with just over 10 tonnes in 2013. Continue reading..
  
  Read more

• Bill Gates 'Discovers' 14-Year-Old Formula on Climate Change

  29-02-2016 18:54
  
  Bill Gates just released a climate science equation that explains how the world can lower carbon dioxide emissions "down to zero," according to the 2016 edition the annual letter he and his wife, Melinda, published. But instead of grilling Gates about the origins of the formula, climate scientists are glad he's talking about it, said Michael Mann, a distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University. The genesis of Gates' equation might remain a mystery for now &mdas
  
  Read more

• Homeowners, do your bit for hedgehogs | Letters

  29-02-2016 18:53
  
  We were saddened, but not surprised, to read that, according to a BBC Gardeners’ World survey, almost half of British people have never seen a hedgehog in their garden (Report, 29 February). The population has declined by a third in urban areas and by half in rural ones since 2000 (State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2015 report).A big part of the problem is connectivity. If a hedgehog cannot get into your garden, you are unlikely to see one there. The British Hedgehog Preservation Soc
  
  Read more

• Oil up on Saudi support, China; poll shows less OPEC output

  29-02-2016 18:22
  
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Monday after China moved to boost its slowing economy and Saudi Arabia pledged to work with other crude producers to limit market volatility, developments that fed hopes the oil selloff would end. A Reuters survey also indicated the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped less crude this month than in January, boosting market sentiment. "Crude and product prices have the ability to stabilise for a cou
  
  Read more

• Brazil justice minister to quit as Lula probe tension grows - sources

  29-02-2016 18:22
  By Lisandra Paraguassu BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's Justice Minister, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, plans to resign by Tuesday, fed up with rising attacks from his Workers' Party over a wide-reaching police probe into corruption that has ensnared a number of party officials, two presidential sources told Reuters on Monday. Brazilian dailies Folha de S.Paulo and Estado de S.Paulo, first to report the minister's imminent departure, said leading members of his party have increased pressure on Cardozo in r
  
  Read more

• EU set to emit 2bn tonnes more CO2 than Paris climate pledge

  29-02-2016 17:30
  
  Note from the European commission reveals emissions trading system allowance numbers are not in line with global 2C target The EU is set to emit 2bn tonnes more CO2 than it promised at the Paris climate talks, threatening an agreement to cap global warming at 2C, a note from the European commission has revealed.Carbon prices will rise too slowly to cut industrial emissions as much as needed, says a confidential note prepared for MEPs on the environment committee, which the Guardian has seen. Con
  
  Read more

• New Virtual Reality Suit Lets You Reach Out & Touch 'Environment'

  29-02-2016 17:04
  
  Virtual reality could one day incorporate all the senses, creating a rich and immersive experience, but existing virtual reality headsets only simulate things you can see and hear. Designed by Lucian Copeland, Morgan Sinko and Jordan Brooks while they were students at the University of Rochester, in New York, the suit looks something like a bulletproof vest or light armor. In addition, there are small accelerometers embedded in the suit's arms.
  
  Read more

• Ecotricity to compete for UK's first tidal project

  29-02-2016 16:17
  
  Ecotricity will compete to build Britain's first tidal lagoon site ahead of the Government's independent review of tidal energy in the spring.
  
  Read more

• Scientists find new weapon in fight against deadly amphibian fungus

  29-02-2016 15:20
  
  Washing infected frogs in an anti-fungal drug bath reduced mortality rate and extended lifespan of population, and could buy valuable time to save species from extinction, research showsScientists have for the first time found a successful short-term treatment for amphibians infected with a deadly fungus in the wild. Although the treatment would not save them from being reinfected and dying at a later date, it could “greatly extend” the time needed to save an amphibian population fro
  
  Read more

• #GreenerLondon: 7 ways the next Mayor can deliver a sustainable capital

  29-02-2016 15:03
  
  The National Trust, WWF, RSPB and Greenpeace are among a coalition of the UK's most prominent environmental organisations challenging the next London Mayor to transform the capital into a world-leading sustainable city.
  
  Read more

• Environment groups throw down the green gauntlet to London mayoral candidates

  29-02-2016 13:52
  
  At the start of Greener London week, the UK’s leading environmental groups call for the next London mayor to deliver a more sustainable capital city, reports BusinessGreenA group of some of the country’s best-known environmental groups, including the National Trust, RSPB, WWF and Greenpeace, are today calling on the next Mayor of London to commit to making the capital a greener, healthier city.The NGOs have drawn together 20 policy suggestions to improve London’s environment an
  
  Read more

• Earth's Early Ocean Was No Scalding Sea

  29-02-2016 13:37
  
  Rocks from the deep past, some 3.5 billion years ago when life first appeared on the planet, were deposited on a deep, cold ocean floor, not in a scalding sea, a new study suggests. "This is the first evidence that over the entire 3.5 billion years, Earth has operated within a temperature range that suits life," said lead study author Maarten de Wit, a professor at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. To take the temperature of Earth's ancient ocean, the resear
  
  Read more

• Scientists fight deadly banana fungus

  29-02-2016 13:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  Around the world, banana farmers are fighting a losing battle against Tropical Race 4, a soil fungus that kills Cavendish bananas, the only type grown for the international market. The disease was first spotted in the early 1990s in Malaysia, but has now started to wipe out crops in large parts of South-East Asia as well as in Africa and the Middle East.
  
  Read more

• Genel halves reserves estimate for Iraqi Kurdistan field

  29-02-2016 12:53
  Genel Energy Plc , one of a handful of foreign oil producers in Iraqi Kurdistan, lost more than a third of its market value on Monday after the company halved the reserves estimate for its largest operational field. The company said it expected to write down the value of its holding in the Taq Taq field in Iraqi Kurdistan by $1 billion, blaming a steep fall in oil prices and the lowered expectations of reserves. Genel estimated that Taq Taq had proven and probable reserves of 356 million barrels
  
  Read more

• Leonardo DiCaprio warns of 'urgent threat' of climate change in Oscars speech

  29-02-2016 12:45
  
  Leonardo DiCaprio ended his 22-year wait to finally take home an Oscar last night (28 February), and the environmental activist used his acceptance speech to urge people across the globe to act on the "urgent threat" of climate change.
  
  Read more

• World's biggest floating solar farm powers up outside London

  29-02-2016 12:44
  
  Five years in planning and due to be finished in early March, more than 23,000 solar panels will be floated on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near Heathrow and used to generate power for local water treatment plants On a vast manmade lake on the outskirts of London, work is nearing completion on what will soon be Europe’s largest floating solar power farm – and will briefly be the world’s biggest. But few are likely to see the 23,000 solar panels on the Queen Elizabeth II res
  
  Read more

• Output from BP's Azeri oil projects edges down to 31.3 mln T

  29-02-2016 12:35
  BAKU (Reuters) - Production at BP-led oil fields in Azerbaijan edged down to 31.3 million tonnes last year, from 31.5 million tonnes in 2014, BP-Azerbaijan said on Monday, contributing to a fall in the country's total output. Declines at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) fields, which account for most of Azerbaijan's oil output, have raised concern in the former Soviet republic. BP said that the consortium spent about $760 million in operating expenditure and $1.9 billion in capital expenditure on
  
  Read more

• China coal consumption drops again

  29-02-2016 12:10
  
  Coal use fell 3.7% in 2015, following 2.9% drop in 2014, as China tries to wean itself off fuel that causes local air pollution problems and global warmingChina’s coal consumption fell for the second year in a row, government data showed Monday, as the world’s biggest polluter attempts to tackle chronic pollution that accompanied economic growth.
  Coal use fell 3.7% last year compared to 2014 levels, according to a report from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The dro
  
  Read more

• Think tank throws out centuries of physics, climate scientists laugh, conservative media fawns | Dana Nuccitelli

  29-02-2016 12:00
  
  Global Warming Policy Foundation publishes report ignoring centuries of physics, drawing criticism from and laughs from climate scientists
  Climate models, and the predictions they make, are based on physics. We know how much more energy is trapped on Earth when we increase the greenhouse effect, and we have a good idea how much this trapped heat will warm the planet. We’ve understood these physical scientific concepts for over 150 years.
  When climate contrarians make their own predictions,
  
  Read more

• Lord Lawson thinktank's report ignores everything we know about climate science | Dana Nuccitelli

  29-02-2016 12:00
  
  Global Warming Policy Foundation publishes report ignoring centuries of physics, drawing criticism and laughs from climate scientists
  Climate models, and the predictions they make, are based on physics. We know how much more energy is trapped on Earth when we increase the greenhouse effect, and we have a good idea how much this trapped heat will warm the planet. We’ve understood these physical scientific concepts for over 150 years.
  When climate contrarians make their own predictions, they
  
  Read more

• Pictures of the day: 29 February 2016

  29-02-2016 11:59
  
  Today: Red squirrels, seal pups and a Tyrannosaurus Rex
  
  Read more

• VIDEO: 'Two, one, zero...': Rocket aborts launch

  29-02-2016 11:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A rocket launch by Californian company SpaceX was called off just when the countdown reached zero, as onboard computers raised an alarm.
  
  Read more

• SpaceX calls last-second rocket abort

  29-02-2016 11:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The California rocket company experiences a dramatic, last-second abort, as onboard computers shut down the engines on a Falcon 9 right at the moment of lift-off.
  
  Read more

• Underwriter Hiscox's financial year pretax profit falls 6.5 percent

  29-02-2016 10:05
  Lloyd's of London underwriter Hiscox Ltd reported a 6.5 percent fall in full-year pretax profit, hurt mainly by falling investment returns in a challenging year for both bond and equity investments. Hiscox, which underwrites a range of risks from oil refineries to kidnappings, said it would return 32 pence per share to shareholders, including a special dividend of 16 pence. Going forward, the company will retain a greater proportion of earnings to fund growth opportunities, Hiscox said.
  
  Read more

• Country strife: can we learn anything from those posh toffs out of town?

  29-02-2016 10:00
  
  New doc Land Of Hope And Glory - British Country Life looks behind the bucolic splendour of the magazine and its readers. But there are simmering tensions under those giletsAnd so to an alien world that lives side-by-side with our own, where people speak in accents so plummy they sound like they’re in a specialised and intense course of speech therapy, where men legitimately wear bowler hats, and the women use the word “jolly” without irony. That world is the countryside, of co
  
  Read more

• China coal consumption drops again: govt

  29-02-2016 09:57
  
  China's coal consumption fell for the second year in a row, government data showed on Monday, as the world's biggest polluter attempts to tackle chronic pollution that accompanied economic growth.
  
  Read more

• Genel to take about $1 billion impairment on Iraqi Kurdistan field

  29-02-2016 09:41
  (Reuters) - Genel Energy Plc said it expected to book about $1 billion in impairment to the 2015 value of its Taq Taq oilfield in Iraqi Kurdistan, citing reduced estimate for recoverable reserves there and falling oil prices. Following a review, the oil producer said it estimated that Taq Taq had proven and probable reserves of 356 million barrels of oil (mmbls) as of Dec. 31, down from its earlier assumption of 683 million barrels in June 30, 2011. By the end of last year, Taq Taq field had alr
  
  Read more

• JKX cautions on $41 million in potential Ukrainian liabilities

  29-02-2016 08:55
  JKX Oil & Gas Plc set out potential liabilities of $41 million from Ukrainian cases as its new board tries to restore investor confidence with more disclosures. The warning comes 30 days after a board overhaul at JKX, which has struggled due to the fall in oil prices to multi-year lows and escalating political tensions between Russia and Ukraine - its two main markets. The liabilities relate to JKX's three cases against the government in Kiev over allegations that it was overcharged in produ
  
  Read more

• Former Tepco bosses charged Fukushima meltdown

  29-02-2016 08:52
  
  First criminal action to be taken after 2011 disaster, in which three nuclear reactors went into meltdown after earthquakeThree former executives from Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) have been charged with contributing to deaths and injuries stemming from the triple meltdown in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.Their indictment on Monday marks the start of the first criminal action to be taken in connection with the disaster, which forced the evacuation of 160,000 residents, many of
  
  Read more

• CBI: Infrastructure Commission needs 'strong teeth' to deliver low-carbon future

  29-02-2016 08:45
  
  The long-term future of the UK is at risk of being "way-laid by politics" if the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) doesn't deliver a fully integrated, low-carbon future that mitigates the impact of climate change, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned.
  
  Read more

• Cash for cycling: polluted Milan might pay commuters to bike to work

  29-02-2016 08:30
  
  With its serious pollution problem and notorious driving styles, Milan is hardly renowned as a cycle-friendly city – but a radical new scheme aims to change that
  Famed for Vespas, Fiat 500s and a somewhat erratic driving style, Italy is not a land known for a thriving cycling culture. While the metropolises of northern Europe have invested in innovative solutions to get citizens on their bikes, in the bel paese the car remains king.
  But now Italy’s economic powerhouse, Milan, is seek
  
  Read more

• Climate change 'most existential crisis civilisation has known', says DiCaprio

  29-02-2016 08:24
  
  Backstage at the Academy Awards, the winner of the best actor Oscar explanded on his impassioned acceptance speech Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar on Sunday, after being nominated four times previously. The actor was expected to win after dominating the best actor race all season, winning a number of precursor awards including a Bafta. Still, he said the industry-wide support he’s received over the past few months “feels incredibly surreal”. Related: The best images from
  
  Read more

• Insight - In slump, oil firms turn to labs, data centres for help

  29-02-2016 07:18
  By Ernest Scheyder GRAND FORKS, N.D. (Reuters) - In a basement lab of a North Dakota research centre, Beth Kurz and an assistant are peering through a scanning electron microscope, studying samples from the state's vast Bakken shale oil formation. Kurz, a hydrogeologist, is part of a team, which looks at using carbon dioxide to coax more oil out of wells that have already been hydraulically fractured, or fracked, in the process of extracting oil from shale rocks. "We're hoping to crack that ridd
  
  Read more

• Factbox - Double hammer in a leap year: when will the oil slump end?

  29-02-2016 07:11
  SINGAPORE/NEW YORK (Reuters) - As oil traders have learnt time and again, picking a bottom in today's glutted market can be a fool's game. 1) DOUBLE HAMMER: TRADERS CHANGE THEIR MIND Ringing in 2016's leap day, there are hints that sentiment in oil markets is getting more bullish. At the same time, traders have boosted bullish bets on oil, raising net-long positions by nearly 16 percent.
  
  Read more

• U.S. shale's message for OPEC: above $40, we are coming back

  29-02-2016 07:09
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - For leading U.S. shale oil producers, $40 is the new $70. Continental Resources Inc , led by billionaire wildcatter Harold Hamm, is prepared to increase capital spending if U.S. crude reaches the low- to mid-$40s range, allowing it to boost 2017 production by more than 10 percent, chief financial official John Hart said last week. Rival Whiting Petroleum Corp , the biggest producer in North Dakota's Bakken formation, will stop fracking new wells by th
  
  Read more

• Lost to the ferocious ocean

  29-02-2016 06:30
  
  Eshaness, Shetland A single raven appears from the gloom and hangs overhead, watching with naked curiosityWe abandon the car at Eshaness, outside the lighthouse swinging its torch in an endless, unstoppable arc, and head north along the cliffs.Only a few months ago, the crags were crowded with life: tens of thousands of seabirds – fulmars, gannets, arctic skuas and the aggressive bonxies, as they call great skuas locally, that will divebomb anyone who comes near their nests – but now
  
  Read more

• Turtles' vulnerable start to life on Philippine coast

  29-02-2016 06:08
  
  Hundreds of tiny turtle hatchlings emerge above a Philippine beach at night and immediately look to the sea, hoping to beat huge odds and start a remarkable trans-oceanic journey lasting decades.
  
  Read more

• China's pollution problem gets hairy with 'nose-tache' to filter smog

  29-02-2016 06:03
  
  Quirky video shows a population of ‘pollution survivors’ who have adapted by growing luxuriant nose hairFor almost every Beijing resident it will be a familiar sight which quite literally gets up their nose. Related: Airpocalypse now: China pollution reaching record levelsContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• WildAid releases 'Hairy Nose', a bizarre ad to combat air pollution in China – video

  29-02-2016 06:01
  
  The video depicts a dystopia where people in China have adapted to the air by growing long moustaches – actually nose-taches – to filter out the smog. ‘Change air pollution before it changes you,’ says the video, which was produced by WildAid China as part of its GOBlue campaign. About one-third of China’s 1.35 billion people regularly breath smog deemed unhealthy by the World Health Organisation. In a recent WildAid survey, more than 90% of Chinese people are conce
  
  Read more

• Musk's SpaceX rocket launch canceled at final countdown

  29-02-2016 04:30
  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - At the last second, Elon Musk's SpaceX scrubbed plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, again delaying an attempt to put an satellite into orbit and then land the vehicle's first stage intact on a sea platform, a step that may eventually slash costs. The 23-story rocket, carrying a communications satellite for Luxembourg-based SES SA, was less than two minutes from blast-off at 6:47 p.m. (1147 GMT) when the launch team aborted the countdown, S
  
  Read more

• Musk's SpaceX rocket launch cancelled at final countdown

  29-02-2016 02:46
  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - At the last second, Elon Musk's SpaceX scrubbed plans to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, again delaying an attempt to put an satellite into orbit and then land the vehicle's first stage intact on a sea platform, a step that may eventually slash costs. The 23-story rocket, carrying a communications satellite for Luxembourg-based SES SA, was less than two minutes from blast-off at 6:47 p.m. (1147 GMT) when the launch team aborted the countdown, S
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!