Environment news

• Oil tumbles 4 percent; Saudi Arabia cold on output freeze

  01-04-2016 23:18
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil tumbled about 4 percent on Friday, after a Saudi prince reportedly said the kingdom will not freeze output without Iran and other major producers doing so, and data showed the global crude glut was likely to grow. Brent finished the first quarter up 6 percent and March 15 percent higher.
  
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• Iraqi PM Abadi's nominee as oil minister withdraws candidacy

  01-04-2016 22:42
  The nominee for the post of oil minister in Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's proposed cabinet, Nizar Saleem Numan, who is a Kurd, withdrew his candidacy on Friday apparently because he had not been formally put forward by the main Kurdish groups. "Because there is no political agreement over the form of the future government, I withdraw my candidacy for the ministry of oil position," he told a news conference in Dohuk. Numan, a 65-year-old petroleum geologist, is part of the lineup of tech
  
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• Lab-grown skin sprouts hair and glands

  01-04-2016 22:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists create artificial skin, made from mouse stem cells, that integrates successfully and even sprouts hairs when transplanted into another mouse.
  
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• Canada's Alberta to fly oil via airships, it says on April Fools

  01-04-2016 22:05
  Canada's oil-producing province of Alberta, stymied by the U.S. decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline and by other market access problems, said on Friday it will use zeppelins to bring its products to markets around the world. Alberta's left-leaning New Democrat government used April Fools' Day to solve the problem of getting bitumen, oil and natural gas from the land-locked province without going through the long consultations and reviews that have frustrated its oil industry. In the same
  
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• Natural gas project operator attempts to walk away from environmental offsets

  01-04-2016 21:56
  
  Inpex, which operates the Ichthys LNG project off the coast of Western Australia, has reportedly sought to abandon $30m worth of offset obligationsAn attempt by the operator of a $34bn gas project to walk away from environmental offset obligations because it claims its impact was not as big as expected is “radically premature”, activists have claimed.The Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG project to extract gas from off the coast of Western Australia, pipe it to a processing plant near Darwi
  
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• Forests still large enough to double the world's tiger population, study finds

  01-04-2016 20:00
  
  Satellite maps show tiger habitat is being lost but still adequate for meeting international goal of doubling tiger numbers by 2022Forests that harbour tigers are being lost but are still large enough to take double the world’s tiger population in the next six years, according to a study using new satellite mapping technology.
  But the internationally agreed goal can only be achieved if no further habitat across Asia is lost and if the “corridors” that connect tiger populations
  
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• Dopey Dick, killer whale that swam into Derry in 1977, still alive and well

  01-04-2016 19:55
  
  Whale experts discover orca they know as Comet is same killer whale that swam into Northern Irish city nearly 40 years agoA killer whale that sparked widespread attention when it swam into a Northern Irish city almost 40 years ago is still alive and living off the west coast of Scotland, experts have found.The whale was nicknamed Dopey Dick by locals after he made his way up the river Foyle into the heart of Derry in pursuit of salmon in 1977. He is now thought to be at least 58 and was identifi
  
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• Saudi Arabia plans to sell state oil assets to create $2tn wealth fund

  01-04-2016 19:07
  
  Campaigners hail a symbolic shift away from fossil fuels, but others see move as more style than substanceSaudi Arabia is planning to establish a $2tn (£1.4tn) sovereign wealth fund by selling off its state petroleum assets in preparation for a world beyond oil.Greenpeace said it was a pivotal moment akin to Switzerland abandoning banking, but others claimed Riyadh had long wanted to diversify its economy and spread its wealth though it had failed to do so. Continue reading...
  
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• April Fools' Day! Why People Love Pranks

  01-04-2016 19:00
  Pranks have not been thoroughly studied, though researchers have found that people find being tricked a very aversive experience. Prank-based humor can be cruel or kind, loved or hated, but it's anything but simple. Pranks "combine a whole bunch of theories, potentially, of laughter," said Cynthia Gendrich, a professor of acting and directing at Wake Forest University who teaches a seminar on why people laugh.
  
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• The free-from restaurant boom that's cashing in by stripping back

  01-04-2016 18:11
  
  Whether it’s gluten, sugar, nuts, eggs, waste or even carbon, today’s most successful restaurants care as much about what’s off the menu as what’s on itRemember when vegetarian restaurants were a novelty? Or even vegan restaurants? Now it’s barely worth noting when there are so many other free-from options to trumpet. From chains such as Wahaca, which has announced that it is carbon-neutral, all the way to Michelin-starred restaurants, in the last few months an ever
  
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• US and China to sign Paris climate deal in April

  01-04-2016 18:06
  
  Countries responsible for 40% of world’s carbon emissions to formally approve historic pact and pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5C, reports Climate HomeChina and the United States, the world’s two leading carbon polluters, said on Thursday they planned to formally join the Paris climate agreement in 2016.In a joint statement, the major powers agreed to sign the historic deal to cut carbon emissions at a UN ceremony in April, and take “respective domestic steps” to ap
  
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• Oil tumbles 4 percent; Saudi Arabia cools on output freeze

  01-04-2016 17:44
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil tumbled 4 percent on Friday to open the second quarter, after a Saudi prince reportedly said the kingdom will not freeze production without Iran and other major producers doing so and data showed the global crude glut was likely to grow. The dollar's first rebound in a week after stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data added pressure on oil, making crude prices denominated in the greenback less attractive for holders of the euro and other currencies.
  
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• Comet 67P presented in silhouette

  01-04-2016 17:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Perfectly backlit by our star, Comet 67P was photographed in dramatic fashion this week by the Rosetta spacecraft - 260 million km from Earth.
  
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• Government urged to prepare health systems against 'devastating' climate change effects

  01-04-2016 17:17
  
  UK health services are currently unprepared for the potentially 'devastating' risks posed by climate change, a new coalition of leading health institutions has warned.
  
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• Campbell's soup cans to drop hormone-mimicking chemical

  01-04-2016 14:35
  
  The iconic US soup maker will stop using Bisphenol-A by 2017, after the chemical was found in all 15 of its cans tested in a US surveyThe iconic US soup manufacturer, Campbell’s, has said that it will stop using Bisphenol-A (BPA) in cans by mid-2017, after the hormone-mimicking chemical was found in all 15 of its cans tested in a US survey.
  Two-thirds of the nearly 200 food containers analysed by the Ecology Centre in Michigan were found to contain BPA, with 70% of Del Monte tins testing p
  
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• Geologist tipped as Iraq's oil minister may facilitate deal with Kurds

  01-04-2016 14:22
  By Isabel Coles and Saif Hameed ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The man nominated to be Iraq's new oil minister is a Kurdish petroleum geologist who could end a bitter dispute with the northern self-rule region and free up more oil exports through a pipeline to Turkey. Nizar Saleem Numan, named as oil minister in Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's new lineup of ministers, told Reuters in an interview he was "hopeful the differences could be resolved" between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government (KR
  
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• London a 'victim of its own success' as environmental performance wanes

  01-04-2016 14:20
  
  The city of London is at risk of becoming a 'victim of its own success', with aging infrastructure and a lack of investment into renewables doing nothing to ease the burden of a rapidly growing population, a new report has found.
  
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• Commercial leases go green

  01-04-2016 14:09 via feedproxy.google.com
  New opportunities to fight climate change in these properties are coming from an unlikely source: the commercial property lease. A new study finds that in 2009, only 15% of all leases signed in Sydney’s central business district contained green clauses; by 2013, this had risen to over 60%.
  
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• Boeing Starliner's 'Last Room on Earth' for Astronauts – Photo Tour

  01-04-2016 13:44
  
  Last week, reporters got a chance to visit a service structure under construction for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft — including the "White Room," the final place astronauts will wait before blasting off. After a long ride from NASA's Kennedy Space Center here through the wildlife refuge surrounding it, our bus full of space journalists pulled up at a construction site where engineers are putting together the Starliner's Crew Access Arm, a 44-foot (13 meters) mobile arm that will to
  
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• Oil prices fall on scepticism over deal to freeze output

  01-04-2016 13:40
  By Dmitry Zhdannikov LONDON (Reuters) - Oil futures fell below $40 per barrel on Friday, with the market growing increasingly sceptical that a looming deal to freeze crude production can help clear a global glut. Saudi Arabia will freeze its oil output only if Iran and other major producers do so, Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg in an interview, helping push prices lower. Brent crude for June delivery fell 90 cents to $39.43 a barrel as of 1108 GMT.
  
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• Tesla Model 3: Elon Musk unveils highly-anticipated 'affordable' electric car

  01-04-2016 13:22
  
  The wait is over: Tesla has launched the Model 3 - its lowest-cost electric vehicle (EV) to date - at its design studio in Los Angeles.
  
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• Apple turns to supply chains ethics as emissions tumble

  01-04-2016 12:46
  
  Tech giant Apple has revealed that it cut carbon emissions by almost 14,000 tonnes in 2015, as the firm continued its drive to improve supply chain sustainability and ethics, its latest supplier responsibility report has revealed.
  
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• Mandarins, spawning time and a family of boar: readers' March wildlife pictures

  01-04-2016 12:30
  
  We asked you to share your March pictures of the wildlife around the world wherever you are. Here’s a selection of our favourites
  • You can add your April wildlife photographs here Continue reading...
  
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• Activists decry Nairobi road project after two lions killed

  01-04-2016 11:30
  By Wendell Roelf NAIROBI (Reuters) - A new road and railway project cutting through an inner city Nairobi nature reserve poses increased risks to wildlife, livestock and human beings, conservationists said, after two lions were killed this week in the space of just 48 hours. Kenyan wildlife rangers shot dead a male lion named "Mohawk" on Wednesday after it strayed from Nairobi National Park and attacked and injured a local resident. The next day, following a helicopter and ground search, rangers
  
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• HP joins RE100, aims for 40% renewables by 2020

  01-04-2016 10:10
  
  Technology giant Hewlett Packard (HP) has reaffirmed its commitment to sustainable business by becoming the 55th company to join the Climate Group's RE100 initiative, pledging to source 100% renewable electricity for its global operations.
  
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• Monaco raids Unaoil offices over global oil corruption probe

  01-04-2016 09:53
  Monaco has raided the homes and offices of oil company Unaoil after a UK request for assistance in an investigation into alleged corruption involving foreign companies in the global oil sector, the principality said in a statement. Monaco said in the statement on its government web site that it had received an urgent request for international judicial assistance in criminal matters from Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO). A joint report by Australia's Fairfax Media and the Huffington Post repo
  
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• Scrapping carbon price floor would 'level the playing field', manufacturers claim

  01-04-2016 09:30
  
  EXCLUSIVE: Clearer policy amendments, including the scrapping of the carbon price floor, would prove instrumental in securing the long-term stability of Britain's energy-intensive companies, the manufacturer's organisation EEF has claimed.
  
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• Bike lanes study shows support for new routes across ages and political views

  01-04-2016 09:12
  
  Major British Cycling poll shows majority backing for more bike routes among virtually all groups, even if it means longer commutes for drivers.
  There is strong backing in Britain for more cycling infrastructure, with support firm across all ages, political backgrounds, social classes and commuter types, according to new data from British Cycling.The findings come from a major YouGov poll carried out for British Cycling. The main results, released last month, showed 71% of Britons back building
  
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• New Acland Coal project will generate far fewer jobs than claimed, court hears

  01-04-2016 08:44
  
  Proposed mine expansion on Darling Downs will create 680 jobs at its peak, compared with the 3,550 jobs originally predicted, says economistA contentious coal project will generate less than a fifth of the jobs the mining company first claimed when seeking approval from the Queensland government, the state land court has heard.The economist Jerome Fahrer, an expert witness called by New Acland Coal, said its proposed mine expansion on the Darling Downs would create 680 jobs at its peak, includin
  
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• England's green power: East Riding best for wind while Cornwall tops solar

  01-04-2016 07:00
  
  Analysis by Green Alliance has mapped onshore wind turbines and solar panel installations for the first timeThe East Riding of Yorkshire is England’s top area for producing wind power, a new analysis has found, with Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire not far behind.The national hotspot for solar generation is sunny Cornwall, perhaps unsurprisingly. But though Cornwall is also one of the windiest counties, it fails to make the top 10 for wind electricity generation. Continue reading...
  
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• Tucker the gassy sea turtle treated for the bends so he can dive

  01-04-2016 06:41
  
  Rescued olive ridley sea turtle is too buoyant to be able to dive for food but experts hope to change that with decompression treatmentVets have put a rescued sea turtle into a hyperbaric chamber, usually used to treat human divers suffering the bends, in a bid to remove gas bubbles in its body that stop it diving.Experts from Seattle will test the buoyancy of Tucker the 20-year-old endangered olive ridley sea turtle on Friday in the hope that they can one day release him back into the ocea
  
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• Beavers pool effort in watery DIY

  01-04-2016 06:30
  
  Vale of Strathmore, Perthshire Dams are constantly being repaired and rebuilt to create canals where the beavers can move safely undetectedThe dipper bobbing along the top of the dam looks oddly smart in this drunken landscape, his clean white bib reflected in the water below. All around is chaos. The beavers have felled most of the bankside birch, sycamore and other trees they like to eat and use for their dams. Less tasty species, like larch, left marooned in the flood, have simply toppled ove
  
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• VIDEO: Turtle treated for buoyancy disorder

  01-04-2016 05:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A turtle in Seattle has undergone experimental therapy involving a hyperbaric chamber to try and treat its buoyancy disorder.
  
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• Going vegetarian could save emissions and prevent 8 million deaths a year

  01-04-2016 01:51 via feedproxy.google.com
  Oxford researchers have quantified the benefits of the world becoming vegetarian, writes Marco Springmann. Their study shows that simple changes - like moving to diets low in meat and high in fruit and vegetables - could lead to significant reduction in mortality and health care costs, while cutting food sector greenhouse gas emissions by two thirds.
  
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• Libyan unity government starts work from 'secured' Tripoli naval base

  01-04-2016 01:34
  By Hani Amara TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's U.N.-backed unity government held meetings at a heavily guarded naval base in Tripoli on Thursday and a senior military official said it was working to secure state institutions in the capital. The government's leaders arrived at the base by ship from neighbouring Tunisia on Wednesday in a high-risk bid to take power, after opponents prevented them from flying in by closing down Tripoli's airspace. Western powers hope the new government will request and
  
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• Libya sanctions shift possible when unity government controls fund - U.N.

  01-04-2016 00:45
  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council said on Thursday it was ready to consider changes to sanctions on Libya's sovereign wealth fund once a unity government confirms it has control of it, along with the National Oil Corporation and the central bank. The 15-member council imposed an asset freeze on the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) in 2011 to prevent the government of former leader Muammar Gaddafi from spiriting away the wealth. A 2011 uprising toppled Gadd
  
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• Climate predicts bird populations

  01-04-2016 00:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Hundreds of the most common bird species in Europe and the US are having their populations altered by climate change, according to scientists.
  
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• Bat disease jumps to US west coast

  01-04-2016 00:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Wildlife officials express concern as white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats in eastern US, is detected on the country's west coast.
  
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