Environment news

• Awakening of the woods: Country diary 100 years ago

  13-03-2016 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 14 March 1916Scattered raindrops, wind-drifted, struck cool upon my face, and the sun failed to pierce the monochrome clouds, yet it was good to be out of doors and a pleasant change after the snow and sleet. Amongst the old leaves, blackened by long submersion, many little bright green specks appeared; the sycamore seedlings had pushed their curled and folded leaves out of the capsules and through the ground. In a wide drainage ditch, stagnant
  
  Read more

• When all your child wants is another storey | Letters

  13-03-2016 20:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Libya | Education and memory | Maths and cake tins | Hinkley Point | Favourite toys | Double bass playersSo even the US president criticises Cameron over the disastrous war against Libya (Report, 12 March). How relieved he must be that the British media has barely an unkind word to say about the matter.
  Peter McKenna
  Liverpool• Todd Huffman writes that a good memory is not a sign of education (Letters, 10 March). BF Skinner argued that “Education is what survives after what has been l
  
  Read more

• Coal-fired plant permits no longer need proof of pollution standards plan

  13-03-2016 19:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Environmental lawyers’ group says unlawful Environment Agency permits have dropped important requirements Scores of Britain’s coal-fired power stations, steel plants and iron works will no longer have to maintain a plan to show they will meet air pollution standards under the latest permits issued by the government.ClientEarth, a group of environment lawyers who last year successfully sued the government over air pollution, said the permits deleted a condition that required the plant
  
  Read more

• Brazil prosecutors seek $2 billion from Odebrecht, Petrobras executives

  13-03-2016 19:40
  Brazilian prosecutors late on Saturday accused executives from construction conglomerate Odebrecht and state-run oil company Petrobras of misconduct and demanded they pay 7.3 billion reais ($2 billion) in damages. Prosecutors accused Odebrecht of paying bribes to win multi-billion dollar contracts with Petrobras as part of a massive corruption scheme that implicated dozens of politicians and top executives. Odebrecht is currently under investigation for its involvement in the graft and influence
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The innovators: the smart plug socket that saves you money and gives peace of mind

  13-03-2016 13:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Left the iron on at home? Got a phone charger on without a phone plugged in? Yasser Khattak says his affordable, simple-to-use remote smart plug sockets help you save energy and cashSnuggled up in bed, Yasser Khattak wanted to turn off the light without getting up. It was his lightbulb moment. That teenage frustration gave him the idea for a household plug socket and light switch where the on-off button is flicked remotely via a smartphone,so appliances such as TVs and lights can all be switched
  
  Read more

• Human scores first win over AlphaGo

  13-03-2016 12:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Go master Lee Se-dol wins a game against Google's AlphaGo program, after losing three in a row in a best-of-five competition
  
  Read more

• South Africa bans leopard hunts due to uncertainty on numbers

  13-03-2016 12:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Hunters association questions government data behind temporary ban on hunting secretive and nocturnal big catsFor the first time in decades, hunters with deep pockets will not be able to shoot all of the “big five” game animals in South Africa after the government imposed a ban on leopard hunts for the 2016 season.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• If Hinkley Point doesn’t go ahead, it could be lights out for one big political career

  13-03-2016 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The much-hyped £18bn project is key to Tory energy policy – however, its fate will be decided in France, not BritainAlfred the Great supposedly burned his cakes at Bridgwater in Somerset. So it seems fitting the planned Hinkley Point nuclear power site is where contemporary political bridges may be burned, too.If you believe the story going around Westminster, the collapse of the controversial reactor project, heavily backed by George Osborne, would end his campaign to take over at N
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Pictures of the day: 13th March 2016

  13-03-2016 09:55
  
  The Suffering, Symondsbury sunrise and Russian Shrovetide
  
  Read more

• Is it time to give up leather?

  13-03-2016 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Cows have long been farmed to fuel the fast food market. Now, by turning leather into a seasonal fashion, they are becoming part of fast fashion. Soon we will have to kill 430m every year. Lucy Siegle gets to grips with life without leather (well almost)After months of trotting around with a broken handbag, I finally found somewhere to mend it. It was a basement shop called Clever with Leather in Brighton. The proprietor examined the piece and announced that “cheap yarn” was the prob
  
  Read more

• Iran set to join oil freeze talks after output at 4 mbpd: ISNA

  13-03-2016 07:08
  Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Iran would join discussions between other producers about a possible freeze of oil production after its own output reached four million barrels per day (bpd), Iran's ISNA news agency reported on Sunday. Zanganeh said Iran saw $70 per barrel as a suitable oil price, but would be satisfied with less, ISNA reported. Asked whether Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak would try to convince Iran to join an oil output freeze during a visit this week, Zanganeh said Ir
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!