Environment news

• Cecil's legacy: could the death of one lion start a conservation movement?

  27-04-2016 23:51
  
  Inspired by Cecil the lion, activists have begun an uphill struggle to convince Unesco to do for wildlife what it already does for places – and create World Heritage Species
  On July 2nd of last year, Cecil the Lion – a 13-year-old, black-maned, pride-leader – was killed by trophy hunter Walter Palmer in Zimbabwe. The surprising thing about Cecil is not how he died – around 600 lions die every year at the hands of trophy hunters – but at the reaction to this particul
  
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• Scientists: Dakota oilfield wastewater spills release toxins

  27-04-2016 23:08
  Scientists say wastewater spills from oil development in western North Dakota are releasing toxins into soils and waterways, sometimes at levels exceeding federal water quality standards.
  
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• Jean-Michel Cousteau: SeaWorld should set captive orcas free into the wild

  27-04-2016 22:32
  
  The oceanographic explorer and son of Jacques Cousteau has indirectly challenged embattled marine park’s claims that no orca has survived releaseOceanographic explorer Jean-Michel Cousteau has called on SeaWorld to release its captive orcas.Cousteau’s intervention comes just one month after the embattled theme park company announced it would stop its program of orca breeding in captivity, but would not completely release the animals. Continue reading...
  
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• Policies 'getting in the way' of green building design, construction giant warns

  27-04-2016 20:06
  
  EXCLUSIVE: The implementation of efficient and sustainable building practices is being hindered by Government and Mayoral politics which are attempting to "promise the Earth" rather than incentivising the built environment, infrastructure and construction firm AECOM has claimed.
  
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• Non-nuclear options for constant energy | Letters

  27-04-2016 19:48
  
  Energy secretary Amber Rudd (Letters, 21 April) clearly has the gift of clairvoyance. She says that no liabilities would fall to the UK taxpayer or consumer should Hinkley Point C be cancelled. Who, pray, would foot the bill to complete the project should EDF withdraw after a few years of construction when cost and time overruns became apparent, as they have with other projects in France and Finland?And assuming the plant ever began generating its costly electricity, who would be responsible for
  
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• Phil the pheasant has a pleasant old time | Brief letters

  27-04-2016 19:42
  
  Martial law in the occupied territories | Pheasant not so shy | Fat-shaming | Letters to the GuardianThe Guardian’s reporting of the recent case of 12-year-old Dima al-Wawi’s conviction under Israeli martial law (Palestinian girl, 12, freed from Israeli jail, 26 April) failed to point out that such a law is, in fact, entirely British. On 7 June 1967, the commander of the IDF in the West Bank, Chaim Herzog, issued Security Provisions Order Proclamation No 3 which imposed such a system
  
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• Dentist wins 'green oscar' for using healthcare incentives to halt logging

  27-04-2016 19:00
  
  Scheme offering Indonesian villages that stop illegal logging large discounts on medical care is saving lives as well as the rainforestAs a dental surgeon, a successful career in conservation was not something Dr Hotlin Ompusunggu ever imagined.
  But her work in Indonesia, where she has helped save orangutans by providing people with healthcare discounts if their villages stop logging, has clearly paid off. As well as cutting logging and improving health, this week she won second a “green o
  
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• The impacts of air pollution on the developing fetus

  27-04-2016 18:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  Even small amounts of air pollution appear to raise the risk of a condition in pregnant women linked to premature births and lifelong neurological and respiratory disorders in their children, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.Fine particles from car exhaust, power plants and other industrial sources are breathed into the lungs, but the scientists have now found evidence of the effects of that pollution in the pregnant women's placentas, the organ that connects
  
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• Bison to become first national mammal, joining bald eagle as American symbol

  27-04-2016 18:25
  
  The bison will join the bald eagle, the national emblem since 1782, as America’s symbolic animal, in an effort to prevent it from going extinctThe bison, an animal once hunted to the brink of extinction in America, is set to become the first national mammal of the US, putting it on a par with the bald eagle as a symbol of the nation.
  Congress has passed legislation, the National Bison Legacy Act, which names the hoofed beast as a “historical symbol of the United States” and est
  
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• British windfarms a boom for Danish firm

  27-04-2016 18:04
  
  Dong, biggest single investor in UK offshore wind, says profits from its renewables overtaking oil and gas receiptsBooming profits from British windfarms have more than made up for declining oil and gas revenues at Dong Energy, a state-owned Danish utility which says it is transforming itself from a high to low-carbon power producer.Dong, the biggest single investor in UK offshore wind projects, including the huge London Array windfarm off Kent, reported first-quarter profits of Kr 8bn (£8
  
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• Solar industry fights RHI subsidy cut

  27-04-2016 18:02
  
  The solar industry has called on ministers to abandon plans to cut support for new solar thermal projects from the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme - a move proposed in a government consultation that closes today.
  
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• Apricot kernels could be 'hidden health hazard'

  27-04-2016 17:38
  
  Europe’s food safety watchdog warns the latest ‘superfood’ contains a compound that is converted to cyanide in the body at harmful levels They have been billed as a new “superfood”, bursting with vitamins, with potential cancer-fighting properties, and a vital ingredient in detoxes. They even appear in wholesome jams made by Delia Smith.But apricot kernels could be a hidden health hazard, Europe’s food safety watchdog said on Wednesday. Continue reading...
  
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• Germany to launch 1 billion-euro discount scheme for electric car buyers

  27-04-2016 17:33
  By Andreas Cremer BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is set to launch a new incentive scheme worth about 1 billion euros ($1 billion) to get more consumers buying electric cars as it struggles to meet a target of bringing 1 million of them onto its roads by the end of the decade. The costs of the incentives, similar to those already established in some other European countries, are to be shared equally between the government and automakers with a view to selling an additional 400,000 electric cars, Tran
  
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• Is dementia unique to humans?

  27-04-2016 16:50
  
  Readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsDo other mammals suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease? And if so, do domesticated animals suffer more or less than those still living wild?Lizzie Hill, Guildford GU1• Post your answers – and new questions – below or email them to [email protected]. Please include name, address and phone number. Continue reading...
  
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• Palm oil giant sets 'fully traceable' supply chain goal for 2020

  27-04-2016 16:39
  
  The world's second largest palm oil plantation company has told edie it wants to achieve "greater awareness of the production practices in the supply chain" as it sets itself an ambitious goal of 100% traceability to plantation by 2020.
  
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• Oil majors' results surprise, but output fall, volatile trading lurk

  27-04-2016 16:39
  Europe's big oil producers had been expected to report their worst quarterly earnings in the current downturn but instead BP, Total and Statoil have delivered share-boosting first-quarter results. The British oil major does not disclose figures for its energy trading divisions, or give details on its performance. Statoil's trading unit suffered from lower margins, it said, but a cost-cutting programme helped the company beat expectations.
  
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• Tesco calls for improved data access for water consumption

  27-04-2016 15:12
  
  EXCLUSIVE: With water regulators Ofwat confirming that a reform to the water retail market will take place on time, UK supermarket Tesco has called on suppliers to incentivise a new and competitive market through the "difficult beast" of data management.
  
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• Whodunit? Mystery Lines Show Up in Satellite Image of Caspian Sea

  27-04-2016 14:57
  
  From 438 miles (705 kilometers) up, the floor of the north Caspian Sea looks like someone's just scoured it with a Brillo Pad. Don't get out the tinfoil hat yet: NASA scientists say these mystery lines are the work of sea ice. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center ocean scientists noticed the image this month, shortly after it was acquired by the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
  
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• 'We simply want to be able to afford to keep going': UK farmers on their industry

  27-04-2016 14:19
  
  Whether it is falling dairy prices, land costs or the pressures of paperwork, we asked British farmers which area of their industry they are most worried about‘I find it hard to understand the lack of rationality in the industry’Emma King lives on a farm in Dorset that has been in her husband’s family for generations. “I had never really seen a cow until I was 30. I was living in Windsor working as a retirement consultant for an actuarial firm. Then I met my husband and g
  
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• China's anti-pollution tech is going premium, but it can't make dirty air go away

  27-04-2016 14:14
  
  Air purifying technology may be a sticking plaster for China’s pollution but is it better than nothing for the country’s chronic problem?Behind a red wooden door, down a Beijing alley, lies what is allegedly the cleanest air spot in the smog-sodden city. Numerous air purifiers gently whir in the Breathing Space Courtyard, in the Chinese capital’s Beixinqiao area.Dotted around the courtyard’s main building, which houses the headquarters of Beijing startup Origins Technolog
  
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• Coral Reef Discovered Near Mouth of Amazon River

  27-04-2016 14:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  While currently more than half of the world’s coral reefs are potentially threatened by humans, scientists just made an incredible discovery: a coral reef the size of Delaware flourishing near the mouth of the murky and Amazon River in Brazil.Coral reefs don’t typically thrive in murky waters, which makes the discovery even more shocking.
  
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• Lords reject Government decision to scrap zero-carbon homes

  27-04-2016 13:53
  
  The Government's efforts to scale-back on key green policies has been blocked, after the House of Lords voted to reintroduce on-site carbon compliance standards for homes and extend the grace period criteria for onshore wind farm subsidies.
  
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• Serbian engineer abducted in Libya freed, Serbian ministry says

  27-04-2016 12:31
  A Serbian engineer who was abducted by unidentified kidnappers in Libya has been freed, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. Miroslav Tomic, a maintenance engineer employed by a German company, was kidnapped on Saturday as he travelled to inspect an oil field around 1,200 km (750 miles) east from the capital Tripoli. Tomic was taken in a region not under effective control by any of Libya's governments.
  
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• The story behind Prince’s low-profile generosity to green causes

  27-04-2016 12:14
  
  An anonymous $50,000 check marked the start of the notoriously private star’s donations to climate change and clean energy causes, reports GristIn the outpouring of media coverage after Prince’s death at the age of 57 last week, fans around the globe began to learn more about the notoriously private star – including that he gave away a lot of money. Van Jones – the activist, author, former Obama administration official, and current CNN commentator – revealed that Pr
  
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• Montserrat's last two mountain chicken frogs to be reunited to save species

  27-04-2016 11:34
  
  Conservationists pin hopes of the species’ survival on breeding the Caribbean island’s last known male and female in the wild In what could be a fairytale ending, conservationists are hoping to reunite the last two remaining wild mountain chicken frogs living on Montserrat and help their species breed on the Caribbean island for the first time since 2009.A project led by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust will next month take the last remaining female and “translocate&rdqu
  
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• Approval of Adani's Queensland coalmine faces another legal challenge

  27-04-2016 10:04
  
  Conservationists claim the state government failed to ensure the planned Carmichael mine was ecologically sustainableAdani’s plan for Australia’s largest coalmine faces yet another snag, with a conservation group mounting what is now the eighth legal challenge to the contentious project.The group, Land Services of Coast and Country, filed an appeal for a judicial review of the Queensland government’s environmental approval of the Carmichael mine in the supreme court on Wednesda
  
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• EFRA urges DEFRA to act on air pollution

  27-04-2016 09:28
  
  Urgent Government action is needed to avert the UK's air quality crisis, including the introduction of clean air zones in towns and cities, a diesel scrappage scheme and steps to tackle farming emissions, according to a major new report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA).
  
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• UK must accept advice on fifth carbon budget, MPs say

  27-04-2016 09:20
  
  The cross-party parliamentary Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECC) has today (26 April) called upon the Government to accept the recommendations of its independent advisory body in setting the fifth carbon budget, warning that "the UK can't afford any further delays".
  
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• Nippon Steel, Sumitomo Corp renew 10-year oil pipe contract with BP

  27-04-2016 09:17
  Japan's biggest steelmaker Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp and trading firm Sumitomo Corp said on Wednesday they have renewed their 10-year contract with BP to supply oil pipes, despite a slump in oil prices. Nippon Steel, which also supplies high-end pipes under a long-term contract to other oil giants such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC , Exxon Mobil Corp , and Statoil ASA , said the new contract is effective from Jan. 1 this year, but declined to disclose details. Global oil prices have tumb
  
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• Amec Foster Wheeler appoints Halliburton executive as CEO

  27-04-2016 08:55
  By Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - British oil and gas services company Amec Foster Wheeler said it has appointed Halliburton executive Jonathan Lewis as chief executive on Wednesday, replacing long-serving CEO Samir Brikho who left unexpectedly in January. Lewis will take up his role on June 1 and interim chief executive Ian McHoul will return to his role as chief financial officer full time, the engineering firm said. Lewis, who will receive an annual base salary of 775,000 pounds takes over
  
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• MPs urge parliament to approve 2030 carbon target

  27-04-2016 08:01
  
  Committee says UK ‘cannot afford further delays’ in setting fifth carbon budget in the wake of the signing of the Paris agreement on climate change The government should approve the UK’s 2030s carbon target in the wake of the signing of the Paris agreement on climate change, an influential committee of MPs has urged.
  The so-called fifth carbon budget sets a limit on the quantity of greenhouse gases that can be produced across the country between 2028 and 2032, as a way of meeti
  
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• German nuclear plant infected with computer viruses, operator says

  27-04-2016 07:44
  By Christoph Steitz and Eric Auchard FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A nuclear power plant in Germany has been found to be infected with computer viruses, but they appear not to have posed a threat to the facility's operations because it is isolated from the Internet, the station's operator said on Tuesday. The Gundremmingen plant, located about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Munich, is run by the German utility RWE. The viruses, which include "W32.Ramnit" and "Conficker", were discovered at Gundremmingen
  
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• VIDEO: Rescued circus lions to fly to South Africa

  27-04-2016 07:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More than 30 lions which have been rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia are to be flown to a sanctuary in South Africa.
  
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• It's getting steamy in the hedgerow

  27-04-2016 06:30
  
  Wenlock Edge Hawthorns push their little cheesy shuttlecocks, oaks are in their bronzeCuckoo pint, lords and ladies, Jack-in-the-pulpit – these names are medieval nudges and winks about genitalia and sex. They belong to wild arum, a trick flower that jumps out of the earth with a bawdy country humour that mocks the righteous and revels instead in the rude phwoar! of April. The cruellest month, according to T S Eliot, and maybe we’ll pay for these few glorious sunny days, but we&rsquo
  
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• Business council praises Labor's 'bridge' to emissions trading scheme

  27-04-2016 06:05
  
  Surprise praise from business lobby group centres on ALP climate policy’s potential to become bipartisan, despite Coalition criticismLabor’s climate policy has won unexpected praise from the Business Council of Australia’s chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, who said the plan could provide a platform for bipartisanship and “build a bridge” for an emission trading scheme.Related: Turnbull warns Labor's emissions trading schemes will destroy jobsContinue reading...
  
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• Turnbull warns Labor's emissions trading schemes will destroy jobs

  27-04-2016 03:54
  
  Prime minister criticises Labor’s plan, claiming it will raise energy prices, be an ‘economic handbrake’ and do little to combat climate change Related: Labor proposes two emissions trading schemes costing $355.9m Malcolm Turnbull has criticised Labor’s plan to reintroduce an emissions trading scheme, warning it would be a “jobs-destroying” measure, a handbrake on the economy, lead to “much higher energy prices” and do little to combat climate chan
  
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• More clean air zones needed, say MPs

  27-04-2016 02:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  "Clean air zones" targeting drivers of high-polluting vehicles should be extended to more cities in England, MPs say.
  
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• MPs: UK air pollution is a 'public health emergency'

  27-04-2016 01:50
  
  Cross-party committee of MPs says the government needs to do much more to tackle the crisis, including a scrappage scheme for dirty old diesel carsAir pollution in the UK is a “public health emergency”, according to a cross-party committee of MPs, who say the government needs to do much more including introducing a scrappage scheme for old, dirty diesel vehicles.The government’s own data shows air pollution causes 40,000-50,000 early deaths a year and ministers were forced to p
  
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• VIDEO: The world's worst nuclear disaster

  27-04-2016 01:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The aftermath of the Chernobyl explosion
  
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• Britain urged to set 2030 emissions target for power industry

  27-04-2016 01:20
  By Susanna Twidale LONDON (Reuters) - Britain should set a 2030 emissions target for the power industry to encourage investment in new low-carbon power plants and keep the country on track for its climate targets, a parliamentary committee said on Wednesday. "The UK can’t afford any further delays when it comes to replacing dirty power stations," Angus MacNeil, chair of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, said in a statement. "Investors need certainty and setting a decarbonisat
  
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