Environment news

• Blizzard leaves plants battered and bruised: Country diary 100 years ago

  03-04-2016 23:30
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 3 April 1916Kew Gardens
  The blizzard of last week seemed like a dream only a few hours after it had startled us. Besides the really dreadful damage done to trees, it battered and bruised such herbaceous plants as were high enough to offer any resistance - flag irises, in particular, were snapped off to an extraordinary extent, and the leaves of tulips were torn and wilted. The dividing of plants goes on, and the ground feels quite warm by ten o&
  
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• Italy's PM says legislation at the heart of oil scandal was his

  03-04-2016 19:32
  Italy's prime minister on Sunday claimed full ownership of a measure to free up long delayed oil deliveries from a southern field that has prompted a minister to resign over allegations of influence peddling. Matteo Renzi told state television RAI that he himself had proposed the amendment to help production at the Tempa Rossa field by putting the government in charge of decisions over transport and storage infrastructure, bypassing regional governments. Industry Minister Federica Guidi resigned
  
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• Mark Ruffalo among names calling for British Museum to drop BP sponsorship

  03-04-2016 17:01
  
  Artists, scientists and politicians sign letter to Guardian calling on museum to end ‘out of touch’ partnership with oil firmRead the letter: signed by artists, scientists and politiciansAlmost 100 prominent figures from the arts, science and politics are calling on the new director of the British Museum to drop BP as a commercial sponsor.In a letter to the Guardian, the museum is urged to abandon the “completely out of touch” partnership.Continue reading...
  
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• British Museum must sever its links with BP | Letter from Margaret Atwood, Mark Ruffalo, Mark Rylance, Tom Kibble, Naomi Klein, Emma Thompson, Vivienne Westwood and others

  03-04-2016 17:00
  
  Letter from Margaret Atwood, Mark Ruffalo, Mark Rylance, Tom Kibble, Naomi Klein, Emma Thompson, Vivienne Westwood and othersWe congratulate Dr Hartwig Fischer on his new role as director of the British Museum (Profile, 1 April), and would like to take this early opportunity to raise an ethical issue of great concern to us all. As the impacts of climate change are being felt more forcefully around the world, it is vital that prominent public institutions like the British Museum play their p
  
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• Will no one stop Poland destroying Europe’s most precious forest? | Patrick Barkham

  03-04-2016 16:31
  
  If the EU can’t save Białowieża from the loggers, its protections are meaninglessBiałowieża is “the misty, brooding forest that loomed behind your eyelids when, as a child, someone read you the Grimm brothers’ fairytales”, in the words of American ecologist Alan Weisman. This unique place of towering hornbeam and fungi the size of dinner plates is Europe: 1,500 sq km of woodland on the border of Poland and Belarus is the last lowland remnant of what co
  
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• Hinkley Point: China incorporates seven London-based firms

  03-04-2016 14:25
  
  Critics question why so many companies have been set up at Mayfair base of China’s state-owned nuclear power firmBeijing’s growing confidence in its plans to help build new reactors at Hinkley in Somerset and Bradwell in Essex has been underlined by the recent incorporation of seven new Chinese nuclear-related firms in London.However, it appears that an agreement between the Chinese and their partner EDF of France to develop the first new reactors in Britain for 20 years has still no
  
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• Southern Cross at Sea: Astrophotographer Shoots Stunning Image While on Ship

  03-04-2016 13:55
  
  Like many astrophotographers, Greg Redfern takes images of the night sky. Redfern took this image of the Southern Cross on Feb. 17, 2016 while aboard the Azamara Quest in the Coral Sea-Great Barrier Reef. The image shows the Coal Sack, the Southern Cross, Eta Carinae and various young star clusters as well as the Milky Way.
  
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• VIDEO: How your brain picks the right word

  03-04-2016 13:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The average English-speaker has about 50,000 words in their mind. But how do they find the right one in 600 milliseconds?
  
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• The innovators: the smart systems driving motorists towards smarter cities

  03-04-2016 11:13
  
  A Cambridge-based tech firm is pioneering apps to let you park more easily, tell local councils when to grit or even light up particular roadsDriving in Moscow can be a hair-raising experience. The city suffers some of the worst congestion in the world and parking spaces are often impossible to find. But now, with the help of technology developed by a British company, drivers in the Russian capital can get ahead in the race to find a space.Along with St Petersburg and Minsk, Moscow is the locati
  
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• Great Barrier Reef pollution control efforts 'not enough to meet targets'

  03-04-2016 11:00
  
  Scientists’ findings that Reef 2050 Plan water quality targets will probably not be met come as Queensland government gives green light to Australia’s largest coalmine Related: Green and Indigenous groups furious over Queensland's Carmichael coalmine lease approval Australia is unlikely to meet water quality targets designed to protect the Great Barrier Reef, researchers from the federal government’s marine science agency have warned. Continue reading...
  
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• Eastern Eden: Poland’s primeval wildernesses

  03-04-2016 11:00
  
  On Poland’s far border lies Białowieża, one of the last remnants of Europe’s primeval forest. It’s a haven for birds and mammals, but it’s also under threat, as our writer discovered on a new tripThe Polish border with Belarus, on the eastern edge of the EU, may not seem an obvious holiday destination but there, largely unknown to British travellers, lie two amazing destinations for nature lovers. Białowieża forest, which straddles the border, is the l
  
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• Green and Indigenous groups furious over Queensland's Carmichael coalmine lease approval

  03-04-2016 09:05
  
  Palaszczuk government accused of a morally bankrupt backflip after approving mining leases while two legal challenges to $22bn mine remain unresolved Related: Adani's Carmichael coalmine leases approved by Queensland Conservationists and traditional owners have been floored by Queensland’s decision to grant mining leases for Adani’s mega-coalmine while two court challenges are unresolved. Continue reading...
  
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• The eco guide to guitars

  03-04-2016 07:00
  
  Musicians’ love affair with tonewoods such as mahogany and and ebony plays mayhem with sustainability – and synthetic materials sound just as goodThe tag “rock’n’roll royalty” should really belong to the instruments: the backstory of some of the world’s best acoustic guitars is frankly breathtaking. Take Bedell’s Antiquity Milagro Parlor guitar. It’s carved from a 400-year-old Brazilian rosewood tree. Wandering troubadours who possess one sho
  
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• Adani's Carmichael coalmine leases approved by Queensland

  03-04-2016 04:59
  
  Decision a major step forward for $21.7bn coalmine, which green groups warn will fuel global warming and compound threats to Great Barrier Reef Related: Adani fails to force activists to pay $1m costs for Carmichael challenge The Queensland government has granted three mining leases for Adani’s multi-billion dollar Carmichael coalmine, which will be the largest in Australia. Continue reading...
  
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• Computer science A-level 1970s style

  03-04-2016 02:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Computer science A-levels in the 1970s
  
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• Am I a fool to expect more than corporate greenwashing? | Lucy Siegle

  03-04-2016 01:08
  
  The high street clothes retailer is launching a recycling week that clashes with a campaign to help exploited workersThe Italian economist Guido Brera warns we’re all complicit in a great deceit. Millennials have been robbed of what might have been previously considered their rights, including free education and an affordable place to live; instead they are distracted and satiated (to varying degrees) by fast food, fast tech and fast fashion.This trio comes at a massive ecological and huma
  
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