Environment news

• Queensland fisherman caught selling bills of endangered sawfish

  03-08-2016 22:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: In photographs obtained by the Guardian, a fisherman can be seen selling the rostrums – long, saw-like bills – at a market in Mackay in June A commercial fisher in Queensland has been caught selling bills of sawfish, which experts say are the world’s most endangered marine fish. Continue reading...
  
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• Rocky Cosmic Crashes Can Forge Space Crystals, Laser Test Suggests

  03-08-2016 22:02
  
  When rocky bodies collide in space, they produce a tremendous shock wave, abruptly increasing the pressure on the minerals within. In a new study, researchers zapped a main component of rocky planets with a laser and discovered something unexpected: Instead of simply melting under suddenly high temperature and pressure, crystals form in liquid as well. Forsterite is a mineral made from magnesium, silicon and oxygen, and it's extremely common on rocky planets: Earth's upper mantle is 70 percent t
  
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• Union calls Thursday strike action in Shell North Sea dispute

  03-08-2016 21:31
  (Reuters) - Britain's RMT union said on Wednesday that industrial action over proposed cuts and changes to working conditions for maintenance workers on Shell's North Sea oil and gas platforms would go ahead on Thursday. "Following a continuing failure by the Wood Group to come up with any solutions in talks...the next phase of industrial action scheduled to start in the morning goes ahead," the RMT said in a statement on its website.
  
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• Oil up 3 pct on big U.S. gasoline draw; WTI back above $40

  03-08-2016 21:25
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped more than 3 percent on Wednesday, with U.S. crude futures returning to above $40 a barrel, after a larger-than-expected gasoline draw offset a surprise build in crude stockpiles in the No. 1 oil consumer. U.S. crude inventories rose for a second week in a row, gaining 1.4 million barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a decrease of 1.4 million barrels, Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed. Brent crude r
  
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• The Guardian view on farming: not about food | Editorial

  03-08-2016 21:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Brexit is a chance to rethink what farming’s for, says Britain’s biggest landowner, the National Trust. But what will we put on our plates then?Rural England and Wales was the bedrock of the Brexit vote. It may well be in the countryside that the impact of the decision first becomes visible. After 40 years of the notorious common agricultural policy, Westminster rather than Brussels will be deciding a national strategy for food and farming. Subsidies currently worth £3bn a year
  
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• Moon Express cleared for lunar landing

  03-08-2016 20:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Moon Express becomes the first private firm to win US approval for an unmanned mission to the moon.
  
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• Vibrations bring still photos to life

  03-08-2016 19:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Photographs in which still objects can be manipulated are developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
  
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• How clean eating devoured the diet

  03-08-2016 19:09 via theguardian.com
  
  No one can agree on what it means – and that’s because the obsession with eating ‘clean’ is less about what you put into your body and more about how you sell those choices to your followersA moment of silence for the diet, please. It has died. Out of its withered ashes has sprung a new era of conspicuously clean consumption, driven by social media. Evidence of dieting’s demise can be found on Chrissy Teigen’s Twitter account. Teigen is a supermodel and the au
  
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• Why are crying babies so hard to ignore?

  03-08-2016 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A neuroscientist explains why Donald Trump found a crying baby at his rally so distracting.
  
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• Oil up 3 percent on big U.S. gasoline draw; WTI back above $40

  03-08-2016 18:20
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped more than 3 percent on Wednesday, with U.S. crude futures returning to above $40 a barrel, after a larger-than-expected gasoline draw offset a surprise build in crude stockpiles in the No. 1 oil consumer. U.S. crude inventories rose for a second week in row, gaining 1.4 million barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a decrease of 1.4 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported. Gasoline stock
  
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• UPS reaches one billion miles target for 'Rolling Laboratory' green fleet one year early

  03-08-2016 17:59
  
  Logistics company UPS has revealed it has passed the one billion miles milestone for its "Rolling Laboratory" of electric, natural gas, biofuel and hybrid delivery trucks one year ahead of schedule.
  
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• BEIS under fire for sudden withdrawal of renewable heat support

  03-08-2016 17:56
  
  The newly-formed Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is being urged to reverse a cut to renewable energy subsidy support which was initiated by its governmental predecessor the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC).
  
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• New York attorney general targets phony Zika-protection products

  03-08-2016 17:30
  By Jessica Dye NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state's top prosecutor said on Wednesday his office has sent cease-and-desist letters to seven companies accused of deceptively marketing ineffective Zika-protection products amid growing concern over the mosquito-borne virus. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also issued a consumer alert warning against the companies' advertisements, which are mainly for ultrasonic and botanical oil-based mosquito repellants. The products targeted by Schneiderman in
  
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• Oil recovers after slide, eyes on glut before U.S. data

  03-08-2016 16:05
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil edged higher on light short-covering on Wednesday after plumbing April lows the previous day, with investors warily eyeing a market believed to be oversupplied despite expectations of a drop in U.S. crude stockpiles. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected to announce at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) a drawdown of 1.4 million barrels in crude inventories for the week ended July 29. Trade group American Petroleum Institute (API) issued prelim
  
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• Why is Rio de Janeiro finding it so hard to clear up its waste? | John Vidal

  03-08-2016 15:19 via theguardian.com
  
  The Olympics Games host city is like thousands of others grappling with industrialisation, population growth and lack of moneySign up to our daily Olympics email briefingEight years ago air pollution in China was the curse of the Olympics. Beijing had to spend tens of millions of dollars closing factories, banning cars and trying to engineer the weather. Air pollution was thrust on to the world stage and has stayed there ever since.Now it’s Rio’s turn to host the Games and attention
  
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• ING raises €27bn in funding for growth of sustainable clientele

  03-08-2016 14:35
  
  Dutch multinational banking group ING has revealed the efforts it has implemented to finance the shift to a low-carbon economy, which has seen the company fund more than €27bn to clients aiming to solve environmental challenges.
  
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• EV charging stations will overtake petrol stations by 2020

  03-08-2016 14:35
  
  There will be more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations than petrol stations in the UK within four years, according to Japanese carmaker Nissan.
  
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• Do eco-friendly wines taste better?

  03-08-2016 14:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  t’s time to toast environmentally friendly grapes. A new UCLA study shows that eco-certified wine tastes better — and making the choice even easier, earlier research shows it’s often cheaper, too.Though consumers remain reluctant to spend more on wine from organic grapes, the new study from UCLA researchers shows that in blind taste-tests professional wine reviewers give eco-certified wines higher ratings than regular wines.
  
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• Giant forest fires exterminate spotted owls

  03-08-2016 14:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  As climate changes and wildfires get larger, hotter and more frequent, how should public lands in the American West be managed to protect endangered creatures that, like the spotted owl, rely on fire-prone old-growth forests?Could periodic forest thinning and prescribed burns intended to prevent dangerous “megafires” help conserve owls in the long run? Or are those benefits outweighed by their short-term harm to owls? The answer depends in part on just how big and bad the fires are,
  
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• UK's carbon footprint rises 3%, what happens next?

  03-08-2016 14:14
  
  New figures published by Defra have revealed that the UK's carbon footprint grew by 3% between 2012 and 2013. With ambitious international and national carbon reduction targets now in place to enshrine low-carbon actions into law, is this a mere blip on the radar, or does the UK need radicalise its approach to emission goals?
  
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• Trump turns fire on Republican leadership | The daily briefing

  03-08-2016 14:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Nominee refuses to endorse Paul Ryan and John McCain; global temperatures hit new records; millennials ‘less likely to hook up’ than earlier generations Continue reading...
  
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• Brexit could herald end to British fruit and veg sales, producers warn

  03-08-2016 13:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Many of the country’s biggest producers say that without a scheme for seasonal workers, homegrown produce would all but vanish from the shelvesBritish fruit and vegetables would all but vanish from shops if Brexit means the foreign workers who pick virtually all the home-grown produce are no longer able to come to the UK, according to some of the country’s biggest producers.They warn that the nation’s food security would be damaged and that produce in UK shops would become more
  
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• Italy tackles food waste with law encouraging firms to donate food

  03-08-2016 13:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Restaurant customers will be encouraged to use doggy bags as part of move to save 1m tonnes of food a yearItaly has made it easier for companies and farmers to donate food to charities and is encouraging more use of “doggy bags” at restaurants as part of a legislative push to curb the epidemic of food waste. A law passed in the Senate on Tuesday will help Italy recover a million tonnes of food a year for the needy, according to the law’s chief sponsor, and comes just six months
  
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• Wildlife-friendly gardens may be more deadly to birds, report shows

  03-08-2016 12:30 via theguardian.com
  
  New research shows that more birds die from collisions with windows in gardens that provide better bird habitat, reports ConservationCollisions with windows are a serious source of mortality for birds: hundreds of millions die from window strikes each year in the US alone. Most attention to this problem has focused on high-rise buildings, because each individual building of this type can kill a great many birds.
  But because there are so many residential dwellings, even a few collisions per home
  
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• Oil edges up to $42 after slide, but glut still weighs

  03-08-2016 12:29
  A supply glut that has weighed on prices could increase if oil exports actually restart from ports in Libya that have been closed since 2014. Brent crude was up 27 cents a barrel at $42.07 at 0957 GMT. "The sentiment is still quite negative and depressed on oil prices," said Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank.
  
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• New research shows penguins will suffer in a warming world | John Abraham

  03-08-2016 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Penguin population declines are found to occur in hotter years
  We know the world is warming, and we know humans are the main reason. But so what? The thing we’d really like to know is, what will the impacts be on our planet, its biodiversity, our society, our economies? It is only through understanding the impacts of climate change that action for reducing greenhouse gases can be motivated.This is one of the reasons I was so interested in a very recent study from the University of Delaware
  
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• Two rare Amur leopards born at Twycross Zoo

  03-08-2016 11:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Two Amur leopards - believed to be the world's rarest big cat - are born at Twycross Zoo.
  
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• China's elevated bus: Futuristic 'straddling bus' hits the road

  03-08-2016 11:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The 2m-high Transit Elevated Bus took its inaugural test run in the streets of Hebei, much to the amazement of Chinese citizens.
  
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• China's 300m high cliff walk for fearless tourists – in pictures

  03-08-2016 11:24 via theguardian.com
  
  A glass-bottomed walkway on Tianmen Mountain in China’s Hunan province has been opened to visitors. The Coiling Dragon Cliff walkway measures 100m and towers 300m above the scenery below. It is the third glass skywalk on the Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park Continue reading...
  
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• Aggreko says recovery in North America power market some way off

  03-08-2016 11:22
  Temporary power provider Aggreko said oil prices needed to be higher for longer to drive a recovery in its business with North American oil and gas customers, as it posted first-half profits that missed some analysts' forecasts. While crude prices have recovered from January lows, Aggreko CEO Chris Weston said North American shale companies were so far largely restarting projects by using power grids rather than the sort of temporary supplies provided by his company. "The oil price needs to be a
  
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• What's in the water? Pollution fears taint Rio's picturesque bay ahead of Olympics

  03-08-2016 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Untreated sewage and viruses in Guanabara Bay have led UN to advise athletes to spend as little time in the water as possible There can be few more beautiful city sights in the world than that from the Marina da Gloria, where the Rio 2016 Olympic sailing events will be launched this weekend.Look out from the quayside across Guanabara Bay and the panorama takes in Sugarloaf mountain, the Niteroi bridge and the distant hills of the Serra dos Orgãos national park, while behind you are the pa
  
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• Britain shouts about immigration but is silent on one of the root causes: climate change | Andrew Simms

  03-08-2016 10:54 via theguardian.com
  
  The Brexit campaign pivoted around migration but its politicians are sceptical of action on global warming that is a key driver of displacementWhat happens as large-scale migration becomes inevitable due to a combination of environmental, economic and humanitarian reasons? Do we tackle the drivers and help the displaced, or worsen conditions causing the displacement and reject responsibility for those affected? Continue reading...
  
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• Scottish windfarms have 'no effect' on tourism, report finds

  03-08-2016 10:12 via theguardian.com
  
  BusinessGreen: New study concludes there is ‘no overall relationship’ between tourism employment in an area and the deployment of onshore windfarms“Repels tourists” can now be added to the long list of criticism levelled at onshore windfarms that has been shown to be unfounded.A new report by consultancy BiGGAR Economics, which analysed the impact of Scottish windfarms on tourism-related employment in an area, this week concluded there was no evidence to suggest windfarms
  
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• South Sudan president fires ministers allied to rival Machar

  03-08-2016 10:05
  By Denis Dumo JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir fired six ministers allied to his long-time rival Riek Machar late on Tuesday, widening a political rift in the world's newest nation and drawing threats of more fighting. Kiir filled the vacant posts, including petroleum minister, with people linked to a breakaway faction of Machar's SPLM-IO party, further aggravating divisions at the top of the oil producer. Around 60,000 people have fled a fresh outbreak of clashes between the
  
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• Britain will continue to seek investment from around the world - May

  03-08-2016 09:30
  Britain will continue to seek investment from around the world, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday after a meeting of senior ministers to discuss a new economic and industrial strategy. "The discussion ... underlined that Britain is open for business, we continue to seek investment from around the world and we will continue to be a strong advocate for free trade," the spokesman said in a statement. May decided last week she wanted more time to review a deal to build Brita
  
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• Carrier bag data reveals varying approaches to CSR among Britain's supermarkets

  03-08-2016 09:25
  
  With new Defra figures revealing that the 5p plastic bag charge has led to a huge decline in the number of bags being handed out by retailers in England, a closer look at the data reveals a significant difference in the way the charge is now being managed by the country's biggest supermarkets.
  
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• U.S. crude remains below $40 as oversupply weighs

  03-08-2016 09:08
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices remained weak on Wednesday, with U.S. crude below $40 per barrel and Brent under $42, as fuel oversupply and stuttering economic growth weighed on markets, although prices did receive some support from a weaker dollar. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $39.54 per barrel at 0651 GMT, slightly above their last close and well below the $40 marker they settled below for the first time since April in the previous ses
  
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• 'Science gives us hope in a turbulent world'

  03-08-2016 07:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Professor Brian Cox talks to the BBC about how why science can give us hope in a turbulent world.
  
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• Big investors pare energy junk bond holdings after big rally

  03-08-2016 07:14
  By Devika Krishna Kumar and Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors in junk-rated energy bonds, who have made a mint this year betting on this battered sector, are paring their holdings as oil flirts with sub-$40-a-barrel levels on concerns about a persistent overhang in supply and choppy demand. Thanks to the two-year slump in the price of oil, energy debt securities yielded a whopping 21 percent in February when crude hit its lowest in over a decade at about $26. Energy debt prices have
  
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• The climate crisis is already here – but no one’s telling us | George Monbiot

  03-08-2016 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The media largely relegate the greatest challenge facing humanity to footnotes as industry and politicians hurtle us towards systemic collapse of the planetWhat is salient is not important. What is important is not salient. The media turns us away from the issues that will determine the course of our lives, and towards topics of brain-melting irrelevance. Related: This year's wildfires are bad. Climate change will make future ones worse | Anthony LeRoy WesterlingContinue reading...
  
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• Cliffs and teeming clefts in the coastal landscape

  03-08-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Aberaeron, Ceredigion The route was almost deserted, so the sensation of being watched was unexpectedEven on the open slopes above the cliff, the air was hot and humid, making the steeper sections of the coast path seem more of a trudge than usual. South of Aberaeron, in west Wales, the route was almost deserted – so the sensation of being watched was unexpected. As I struggled past a tangled mass of gorse, I realised that I was being observed by a stonechat perched on a bracken frond. My
  
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• U.S. crude remains below $40 as oversupply still weighs

  03-08-2016 06:12
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up in early trading on Wednesday, supported by a weaker dollar, but U.S. crude futures remained below $40 per barrel and Brent was below $42 as ongoing fuel oversupply and stuttering economic growth weighed on markets. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $39.77 per barrel at 0350 GMT, up 26 cents from their last settlement but still below the $40 marker they settled below for the first time since April in th
  
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• The deadly trade around exotic fish

  03-08-2016 04:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Emily Voigt devoted three years of her life and visited fifteen countries in search of the rare Asian arowana.
  
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• Britain will continue to seek investment from around the world - PM May

  03-08-2016 03:18
  Britain will continue to seek investment from around the world, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday after a meeting of senior ministers to discuss a new economic and industrial strategy. "The discussion ... underlined that Britain is open for business, we continue to seek investment from around the world and we will continue to be a strong advocate for free trade," the spokesman said in a statement. May decided last week she wanted more time to review a deal to build Brita
  
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• U.S. crude oil remains below $40 as oversupply still weighs

  03-08-2016 02:41
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up early on Wednesday, supported by a weaker dollar, but U.S. crude futures remained below $40 per barrel and Brent was below $42 as ongoing fuel oversupply and stuttering economic growth weighed on markets. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $39.63 per barrel at 0027 GMT, up 12 cents from their last settlement but still below the $40 marker it settled below for the first time since April during the previou
  
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• Wealthier homes contain more bugs, research shows

  03-08-2016 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  US study overturns perceptions about poorer homes by showing higher income houses host up to 200 different species of flies, spiders, beetles and antsHomes in wealthier areas harbour more bugs, containing up to 200 different species of flies, spiders, beetles and ants, according to new research. The vast majority are not pests although dust mites and book lice were also common.The finding is the latest demonstration of the “luxury effect” which has shown that richer neighbourhoods ar
  
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