Environment news

• Spider lurks in its perfect wire entanglement: Country diary 100 years ago

  04-09-2016 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 8 September 1916The autumnal touch of morning mist reveals the fact that spiders are more numerous than we imagine. Over the hedge-top, slung between the garden plants stretched across the road and pathway, and suspended beneath the bushes are innumerable lines, nets, and traps, all carefully prepared to ensnare the heedless fly or other insect. They are there, these nets, on every summer day, but it is only when the moisture ropes them with sci
  
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• Giant pandas rebound off endangered list

  04-09-2016 22:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Decades of conservation efforts by China lead to a rise in the number of giant pandas, as they are taken off the endangered species list.
  
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• Climate Change Authority's plan is 'a dog's breakfast', say dissenting members

  04-09-2016 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate scientist and economist publish minority report calling for full emissions trading scheme and closure of brown-coal-fired power plantsThe Climate Change Authority’s latest report is a “recipe for further delay” on climate change, contravenes the authority’s legal obligations and recommends “a dog’s breakfast” of policies, say two key members in a dissenting minority report.Climate scientist David Karoly and economist Clive Hamilton said they coul
  
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• Eastern gorilla now critically endangered due to illegal hunting

  04-09-2016 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Largest living primate joins three other great ape species on International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red listHumanity has moved a step closer to wiping out our closest evolutionary relatives, with four of the six great ape species now listed internationally as critically endangered.The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the eastern gorilla, the largest living primate, as critically endangered in its latest“red list” of threatened species.
  
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• IUCN updates 'red list' of endangered species - in pictures

  04-09-2016 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Orangutans, gorillas, duiker antelopes, and plains zebras are among the species that have moved up the global list of endangered species Continue reading...
  
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• Eastern Gorilla now 'critically endangered', says world conservation congress - in pictures

  04-09-2016 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Orangutans, Gorillas, Duiker antelopes, and Plains Zebras, are amongst the animals that have moved up the global list of endangered species Continue reading...
  
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• Japan, China to hold summit meeting on Monday amid island row

  04-09-2016 19:11
  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday, the Japanese government said, the first such meeting in more than a year as Asia's two largest countries are locked in a territorial dispute. Tension flared up last month after more than a dozen Chinese coastguard and other government ships sailed near a group of East China Sea islets controlled by Tokyo but claimed also by Beijing, making a meeting between the two top leaders on the sidelines of the
  
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• Russia's Putin, Turkey's Erdogan support increased oil trade - Kremlin

  04-09-2016 19:07
  HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan expressed joint support for Russian oil major Rosneft increasing oil supplies to Turkey, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. "There was support for the possibility of further developments of Russian oil supplies by Rosneft," Peskov said. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Jack
  
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• First they came for our plastic bags, now they’re coming for our coffee cups

  04-09-2016 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Having led the way with the coalition’s popular 5p bag levy, the Lib Dems have another cunning plan ...
  Name: The 5p cup charge.Status: Just a possibility. Continue reading...
  
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• North Dakota pipeline protest turns violent after cultural sites destroyed

  04-09-2016 15:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Tribal officials say at least 30 people were pepper-sprayed after confronting construction crews for destroying burial and cultural sites near a reservationA protest against a four-state, $3.8bn oil pipeline turned violent after tribal officials say construction crews destroyed American Indian burial and cultural sites on private land in southern North Dakota.Morton County sheriff’s office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey said four private security guards and two guard dogs were injured after s
  
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• Saudi-Russia cooperation will help oil market - deputy crown prince

  04-09-2016 13:19
  HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia will bring benefits to the global oil market, Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. They met on the sideline of the G20 summit in eastern China. Russia and Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producers, are seeking ways to prop up a weak oil market. Putin told reporters it was important for Russia to maintain a dialogue with Saudi Arabia. (Reporting
  
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• Zika pesticide kills millions of bees in South Carolina

  04-09-2016 13:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Millions of honeybees have been killed in South Carolina after pesticide was sprayed to kill off mosquitoes that could be harbouring the Zika virus.
  
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• Exclusive - Saudi state fund plans stake in big industrial zone: source

  04-09-2016 13:12
  By Hadeel Al Sayegh and Andrew Torchia DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's top sovereign wealth fund is negotiating to buy a stake in one of the kingdom's most ambitious real estate projects as Riyadh restructures the economy to cope with low oil prices, a source familiar with the plan said. The Public Investment Fund aims to invest in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) on the Red Sea coast near Jeddah, the source said. Launched in 2005, KAEC had a population of only about 5,000 people and 120 indu
  
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• US beekeepers fear for livelihoods as anti-Zika toxin kills 2.5m bees

  04-09-2016 12:55 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘It kills everything’: conservationist warns over threat to other animalsRegulators: ‘clear and public health crisis’ allows use of Naled chemicalHuddled around their hives, beekeepers around the south-eastern US fear a new threat to their livelihood: a fine mist beaded with neurotoxin, sprayed from the sky by officials at war with mosquitos that carry the Zika virus. Related: Miami fears Zika virus may hit $24bn ​tourism industry hardContinue reading...
  
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• Putin says Russian economy stabilised, pledges budget deficit cuts

  04-09-2016 12:06
  Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a speech at the G20 summit in eastern China, said that Russia's economy has stabilised, pledging the reduction of the budget deficit and dependency on oil and gas exports. "Our economy has stabilised... We plan to reduce the budget deficit further, and to continue to work on cutting the budget's revenues dependency on the exports of hydrocarbons," Putin said.
  
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• May to review security risks of Chinese-funded nuclear deal

  04-09-2016 11:41
  By William James HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday she wanted her security advisers to review a delayed nuclear power investment from China - a source of diplomatic tension - as she arrived in the country to attend a G20 summit. May upset Chinese officials in July by delaying a $24 billion project that would see French firm EDF build Britain's first new nuclear power plant in decades with the help of $8 billion from China. Speaking during her first visit to Ch
  
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• Panda twins born at Zoo Atlanta to Lun Lun - again

  04-09-2016 11:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Lun Lun, a 19-year-old giant panda, has given birth to twins - she also had twins in 2013.
  
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• China's Xi says hopes for fair Australia investment policy

  04-09-2016 04:54
  Chinese President Xi Jinping told Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday that he hopes Australia continues to provide a fair, transparent and predictable policy environment for foreign investors. The two were speaking on the sidelines of a G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. China was angered after Australia last month blocked the A$10 billion ($7.7 billion) sale of the country's biggest energy grid to Chinese bidders after they failed to overcome security concerns.
  
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• Rising oil import costs may become Asia's growing pain

  04-09-2016 03:32
  By Florence Tan and Gavin Maguire SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A widening gap between Asia's oil production and demand is creating a growing capital drain for the region and leaving countries vulnerable to global supply disruptions and a sudden surge in oil prices. Asia's net oil imports surpassed the total amount of oil consumed in North America in 2015 and are set to rise after producers slashed spending on exploration and production on low oil prices , leaving oilfields at risk of sharp production d
  
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• May defends delay on Chinese-backed nuclear power plan

  04-09-2016 02:25
  British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday defended her decision to delay a partly Chinese-funded nuclear power deal, despite it causing diplomatic tension with China as she landed in the country to attend a G20 summit. In July, May upset Chinese officials by delaying a $24billion project that would see French firm EDF build Britain's first new nuclear power plant in decades with the help of $8 billion from China. The decision caught investors by surprise and has cast doubt over whether May, w
  
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• The National Trust, the sheep farm and the fight for a Lakes way of life

  04-09-2016 01:28 via theguardian.com
  
  In the Lake District’s Borrowdale Valley, farmers – and Melvyn Bragg – are pitted against the country’s guardian of natural treasuresDeep in the Borrowdale valley, where England is observed in its finest garments, there is ferment in the fields and on the hillsides. The gnarled farming communities who toil with their sheep on these lakeland slopes have prevailed in the face of Vikings, Normans and rampaging Scots for thousands of years and have learned to harness tempests
  
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• ‘Human swan’ conservationist takes to skies on 4,600-mile migration

  04-09-2016 01:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Sacha Dench will use a motorised paraglider to track the Bewick’s swan on its journey from Siberia and discover why numbers are fallingIn a few days, conservationist Sacha Dench will take to the air in the most unusual company. She will launch herself from the tundra of Siberia in a motorised paraglider and, when airborne, she will follow the thousands of Bewick’s swans that will have begun their annual migration from the Arctic to their wintering grounds in western Europe.The 4
  
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• Argentina's richest man, Carlos Bulgheroni, dead at 71

  04-09-2016 00:51
  BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's richest man according to Forbes, energy mogul Carlos Bulgheroni, died on Saturday in the United States, where he was hospitalized following a surgical procedure in June, his company said. The 71-year-old Bulgheroni, along with his brother Alejandro, owned Pan American Energy, Argentina's second-biggest oil company, behind state-run YPF. According to local media, Bulgheroni had been battling cancer for years. Forbes estimated that Carlos and Alejandro Bulghero
  
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