Environment news

• Scientists warn world will miss key climate target

  06-08-2016 23:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Grim backdrop to vital global emissions talks as new analysis shows 1.5C limit on warming is close to being brokenLeading climate scientists have warned that the Earth is perilously close to breaking through a 1.5C upper limit for global warming, only eight months after the target was set.The decision to try to limit warming to 1.5C, measured in relation to pre-industrial temperatures, was the headline outcome of the Paris climate negotiations last December. The talks were hailed as a major succ
  
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• Nuclear safety fears grow as France snubs UK watchdog

  06-08-2016 21:35 via theguardian.com
  
  France’s slow response to ONR on suspect components raises question for regulator’s interaction with Chinese contractorsBritain’s nuclear watchdog was made to wait more than a fortnight for key files from energy giant EDF confirming that components recently revealed to be suspect had not been used in one of Britain’s largest nuclear power stations.Emails released under the Freedom of Information Act show that in early May, France’s EDF Group initially rebuffed reque
  
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• Let them eat bugs: US startup sees future of sustainable food in creepy crawlies

  06-08-2016 15:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Grubbly Farms is raising black soldier flies as a substitute for wild-caught fish in food for livestock and farmed seafoodThe experiment started inside the laundry room of an apartment in Atlanta, Georgia, where the two college students created a nursery for 700 larvae of black soldier flies they bought on Amazon for $20. Sean Warner and Patrick Pittaluga weren’t raising the writhing bugs as pets. They were raising food for animals.Warner and Pittaluga, who are cousins and Georgia Tech gra
  
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• Fossil fuel moguls are backing Trump with words, but not with donations

  06-08-2016 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Trump campaign has seen dismal fundraising yields in the energy sector, seemingly due to nervousness about his policy and his volatile temperamentShale oil billionaire Harold Hamm publicly lavished praise on Donald Trump during the Republican convention last month. Natural gas mogul T Boone Pickens is talking with pro Trump Super Pacs about providing help, including possibly writing a big check and hosting a fundraiser. And coal chieftain Robert Murray spearheaded a big fundraiser for Trump
  
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• Fire under control in Iran gas pipeline blast - company official

  06-08-2016 10:24
  ANKARA/ DUBAI (Reuters) - A fire from a gas pipeline explosion in Iran early on Saturday near the town of Gonaveh in the southern province of Bushehr, has been brought under control and did not cause any fatalities, the news agency of the country's oil ministry said on Saturday. "The fire started at 00:45 ... and was fully contained at 05:00," the head of the Health, Safety & Environment department at Gachsaran Oil and Gas Company, Mohammad Mohseni was quoted as saying by the oil ministry's
  
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• Highlands: Scotland's Wild Heart review – majestic osprey, cute deer … but no Nessie

  06-08-2016 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  This wildlife doc, with a soulful voiceover by Ewan McGregor, travels across some of the most remote parts of the UK – in all their violence and gorgeousnessThe first episode of the new four-part documentary series Highlands: Scotland’s Wild Heart (BBC1) opens with the Cairngorms on fire. It says something about the last few months’ news that this barely registers beyond the vague thought that there are going to be even fewer post-apocalyptic sanctuaries than you once hoped.But
  
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• Last dance of summer for the pied flycatcher

  06-08-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Newport, Pembrokeshire Of all birds, none reminds me more clearly and poignantly that ‘summer’s lease hath all too short a date’“Like miniature magpies!” That’s how my friends’ young daughter described them to me years ago, delighted by the little dancing birds of summer that thronged the track down to my house. She wanted to know what they were called. They were here again as I climbed out of Newport heading for Carn Ingli.If any bird typifies Wales and
  
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• Baby whale stranded in New Zealand harbour for 20 days has died

  06-08-2016 02:25 via theguardian.com
  
  The orca, nicknamed Bob, was dehydrated and emaciated, and refused food offered by scientists trying to save himThe baby orca stranded in Tauranga harbour in New Zealand for more than 20 days has died.The calf – nicknamed Bob by locals – had been separated from it’s pod in mid-July, and despite the efforts of a task force set up to reunite Bob with his family, his kin were never located. Continue reading...
  
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• BP reveals Great Australian Bight oil drilling sites are within marine reserve

  06-08-2016 00:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Plan attacked as ‘outrageous’ as company says oil industry can safely coexist with the marine environmentBP has quietly announced the planned location of its controversial drilling in the Great Australian Bight, and the two sites fall within the Commonwealth Marine Reserve.Despite being the subject of a Senate inquiry, and having its application to drill knocked back twice by the regulator NOPSEMA, BP had so far never released the precise location of its exploratory drilling wells in
  
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• Subduction zone earthquakes off Oregon, Washington more frequent than previous estimates

  06-08-2016 00:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new analysis suggests that massive earthquakes on northern sections of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, affecting areas of the Pacific Northwest that are more heavily populated, are somewhat more frequent than has been believed in the past.The chance of one occurring within the next 50 years is also slightly higher than previously estimated.The findings, published this week in the journal Marine Geology, are based on data that is far more detailed and comprehensive than anything prior to thi
  
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