Environment news

• Feeding time along the shoreline: Country diary 100 years ago

  29-05-2016 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 2 June 1916Although we could not see them, shoals of small fish raced seaward on the falling tide, hastening through the shallowing water on the banks; the terns, however, could see them, and, following in a dense, screaming crowd, literally fell upon them. Out of the mass of noisy hovering birds a score or more at a time dived head-long, splashing up the water as they struck. Nearer shore, where the water runs in channels between the rocks and
  
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• How fracking can contribute to climate change

  29-05-2016 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Leakage of natural gas from drilling and pipework means more methane is entering the atmosphereOne of the justifications for fracking is the use of natural gas as a bridging fuel between coal and a low-carbon future. However natural gas is mostly methane, which has strong global warming impacts in its own right. Natural gas therefore only provides climate benefits over coal if the leakage is no more than 2-3%.We cannot measure leaks from every pipe joint. One alternative is to measure the sum of
  
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• Labor pledges $500m over five years to support Great Barrier Reef

  29-05-2016 22:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Extra cash for scientific monitoring and management promised by Bill Shorten to support one of party’s ‘highest priorities’ Labor is promising to invest $500m to boost scientific monitoring and management of the Great Barrier Reef over five years as it unveils its biggest environmental policy of the election campaign so far.It says it will adopt every recommendation in the Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce final report, released last week.Continue reading...
  
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• Homeowners kept in dark about climate change risk to houses, says report

  29-05-2016 22:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate Institute says risk data held by regulators, state and local governments, insurers and banks, but homebuyers and developers do not have access to itThe risk that houses in some areas of Australia are likely to become uninsurable, dilapidated and uninhabitable due to climate change is kept hidden from those building and buying property along Australia’s coasts and in bushfire zones, a Climate Institute report says.The report says there is untapped and unshared data held by regulator
  
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• Most coral dead in central section of Great Barrier Reef, surveys reveal

  29-05-2016 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As mass bleaching sweeps the world heritage site, scientists also find an average of 35% of coral dead or dying in the northern and central sections of the reefThe majority of coral is now dead on many reefs in the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, according to an underwater survey of 84 reefs, in the worst mass bleaching event to hit the world heritage site.An average of 35% of coral was now dead or dying in the northern and central sections, according to the surveys led by the Austral
  
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• Women are ready to take on fracking | Letters

  29-05-2016 20:57 via theguardian.com
  
  There is a whole generation of women out here who were protesters at Greenham Common, Aldermaston, and the Newbury Bypass (Anti-Fracking groups plan protest camps, 26 May). Besides working with our partners to help our children carve out a life in a horribly hostile financial climate, we are volunteering on committees to help keep youth and children’s centres, libraries, and village halls open, because council budgets are totally inadequate. In our 50s, 60s and 70s, we are supporting the j
  
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• How Nottinghamshire hamlet wages quiet battle against fracking

  29-05-2016 18:13 via theguardian.com
  
  After North Yorkshire allows test drilling, villagers in Misson are determined to stop the same happening in former bomber pilot testing ground When councillors in North Yorkshire ignored widespread public opposition and granted planning permission for the fracking company Third Energy to carry out test drilling earlier this week, there were groans around the Nottinghamshire village of Misson.For the last two years, tenacious locals in this quiet fenland hamlet have been fighting attempts by ano
  
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• How a Nottinghamshire hamlet wages quiet battle against fracking

  29-05-2016 18:13 via theguardian.com
  
  After North Yorkshire allows test drilling, villagers in Misson are determined to stop the same happening in former bomber pilot testing ground When councillors in North Yorkshire ignored widespread public opposition and granted planning permission for the fracking company Third Energy to carry out test drilling, there were groans around the Nottinghamshire village of Misson.For the last two years, tenacious locals in this quiet fenland hamlet have been fighting attempts by another energy firm t
  
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• Australian election 2016: we will meet tougher targets on climate change, Turnbull says in leaders' debate

  29-05-2016 13:46 via theguardian.com
  
  In debate with no decisive winner, prime minister said he was ‘committed to action’ on global warming but Bill Shorten said he was no longer leading on the issue Malcolm Turnbull conceded bipartisanship on climate change was desirable and committed to meet higher targets if set by the global community in the second leaders’ debate of the Australian election campaign.But the prime minister failed to outline how Australia would reach the 2030 emission reduction targets agreed to
  
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• Russian minister Novak says too early to write off OPEC

  29-05-2016 13:44
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak believes that it is too early to write off OPEC despite internal differences within the group, he said on the ministry's Twitter feed. Novak also reiterated that the issue of a possible oil production freeze is no longer relevant after a rise in oil prices. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by David Goodman)
  
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• Russian minister Novak expects decline in oil supplies on global markets

  29-05-2016 13:29
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak expects oil supplies to decline year on year on global markets in the second, third and final quarters of 2016, he said on Sunday on the ministry's twitter account. Novak also said that oil consumption would rise, even if its share in the global energy mix declines moderately. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by David Goodman)
  
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• Flexi-space room expansion complete

  29-05-2016 10:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new, expandable "room" has been opened up on the International Space Station.
  
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• Leave Hinkley to the hedgehogs. This debacle needs to be taken in hand

  29-05-2016 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Environmental protections on EDF’s troubledSomerset construction site are excellent, apparently. Very little else about the project isHave you heard about the terrific bat houses and hedgehog tunnels down at Hinkley Point in Somerset? Energy minister Andrea Leadsom has been to inspect them herself and raved about them last week to a select committee of MPs. They were evidence, she suggested, of the depth of commitment of French firm EDF to the £18bn nuclear power station due to be bu
  
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• Australia covered up UN climate change fears for Tasmania forests and Kakadu

  29-05-2016 09:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Fears about damage to the Great Barrier Reef were removed from UN report along with concern about a threat to the environment in two other heritage sites A draft UN report on climate change, which was scrubbed of all reference to Australia over fears it could deter visitors to the Great Barrier Reef, also outlined possible threats to the Tasmania wilderness and Kakadu. Continue reading...
  
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• Florida brewery creates edible beer holders to save marine life

  29-05-2016 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Discarded plastic six-pack rings trap and kill fish and other sea life. Could holders made from wheat and barley be an animal-friendly alternative?
  Instead of killing animals, our packing design will provide them with food, explains Saltwater Brewery co-founder Chris Gove of his company’s biodegradable, edible beer pack rings.The rings, made from wheat and barley waste – natural byproducts of the beer-making process – are being touted by the Florida-based microbrewery as a prag
  
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• Sustainable energy: inside Iceland’s geothermal power plant

  29-05-2016 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  In the first of a series, we visit the Hellisheiði plant, which provides 300MW of power – and Reykjavik’s hot waterThanks to its position on a volatile section of the Mid-Atlantic ridge, Iceland is a world leader in the the use of geothermal energy, and of the six geothermal power plants in Iceland, Hellisheiði (pronounced “het-li-shay-thee”) is the newest and largest. Fully operational since 2010, it sits on the mossy slopes of the Hengill volcano in the south-we
  
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• Zoo gorilla shot as boy falls into moat

  29-05-2016 08:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Zoo officials shoot dead a gorilla after it grabbed a four-year-old boy who fell into its enclosure in the US city of Cincinnati.
  
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• Women lead the call to arms as anti-fracking fight intensifies

  29-05-2016 07:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Female opposition to drilling soars as mothers unite in desire to safeguard children’s future“We are ready for them,” said Tina Louise Rothery. “It has been a long battle but we have been ready for a confrontation for a long time.”Rothery is one of a growing group of women at the forefront of opposition to fracking. Of the 250 anti-fracking community groups that have sprung up in Britain in the past few years, very many are led, or strongly backed, by women, who say
  
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• Jurassic 'sea monster' is unveiled

  29-05-2016 07:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Piecing together the bare bones of a sea reptile that swam at the time of the dinosaurs.
  
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• Eve the Jurassic sea monster

  29-05-2016 07:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Piecing together the bare bones of a sea reptile that swam at the time of the dinosaurs.
  
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• The eco guide to pet fish

  29-05-2016 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Time to help the creatures that, wrested from habitats where they swim thousands of miles, end up atrophying in tanksWe need to talk about Dory. As Pixar’s charming version of a tropical blue tang swims on to screens in Finding Dory next month, conservationists fear a wave of inappropriate fish buying.Finding Nemo, which triggered just such a global craze in 2003, posed less of a threat. Clownfish (Nemo’s ilk) are usually bred in captivity for the aquarium trade, but blue tangs
  
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• Alma telescope peers into space

  29-05-2016 01:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Alma telescope peers into space from Chile
  
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