Environment news

• Gorgeous colours on the pebble beach: Country diary 100 years ago

  18-09-2016 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 25 September 1916The serpentine stones which form the shingle on the Lizard peninsula are very tempting to collect, and we have had the happy idea of using them in bowls this winter, to grow narcissi in and Roman hyacinths. A child is the pure artist in collection. He needs no apology. The mere contemplating of his hoards, laying them out in array, counting and sorting, is amply enough joy for him. But we grown-ups are compelled to seek a plea o
  
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• Sudan threatens to close border with South Sudan within days

  18-09-2016 22:56
  Sudan said on Sunday it would close its border with South Sudan within days if its neighbour did not expel militant groups, the government told state media. Sudan regularly accuses its neighbour of backing insurgents in the Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions that run along its southern border. South Sudan split away from Sudan in 2011 after decades of civil war fuelled by ethnic divides and disputes over oil.
  
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• The whinchat in decline on lowland farms

  18-09-2016 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Forty years ago there were as many as 150 breeding pairs of whinchats on the Somerset Levels. Now there are noneSome birds pop up when you least expect it. On August bank holiday I went for a walk to my coastal patch, along with assorted relatives and a very boisterous dog. Bird-wise, apart from a high-tide roost of a thousand redshanks along the river Brue, things were relatively uneventful.But as we were strolling back to the car, a small bird flew up onto a protruding twig along a hedgerow, a
  
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• Fourteen kidnapped Nigerian oil workers freed - police

  18-09-2016 19:34
  Nigerian police have freed 14 kidnapped oil workers in the restive southern Niger Delta region, which has been hit by a series of militant attacks on oil and gas facilities, police said on Sunday. Kidnapping for ransom is a common problem in some parts of Nigeria and the southern Delta energy hub has seen an increase in crime since the start of attacks by militants calling for more oil wealth to go to the impoverished region. The workers are employees of Nigerian oil company Nestoil.
  
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• 'No time to waste': climate changes for films on global warming

  18-09-2016 17:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Rob Callender, who appeared in Sherlock and Game of Thrones, discusses The Incentive, his environmental call to armsRob Callender is talking about cheese. “My dad loves cheese, really loves it. So I’ve had to persuade him to cut down. Instead of leaping on every two-for-one in the supermarket, buy one really nice cheese once a week. Dairy farming is such a horrible industry.”Callender’s passionate advocacy of veganism has made him an object of fun and curiosity on film se
  
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• Tanker withdraws offshore after Libyan oil port clashes - NOC

  18-09-2016 16:45
  Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said a tanker that had been loading at the port of Ras Lanuf had withdrawn to a safe distance as rival forces clashed nearby on Sunday. "We‎ understand the port of Ras Lanuf itself has not been affected by the fighting so far, though the situation is in flux," the NOC said in a statement. The NOC said a previously damaged oil storage tank in the neighbouring port of Es Sider had been set on fire, but firefighting teams were expected to control the blaze
  
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• OPEC secretary-general says may call extra meeting if consensus at Algiers - APS

  18-09-2016 16:37
  By Hamid Ould Ahmed ALGIERS (Reuters) - OPEC members may call an extraordinary meeting to discuss oil prices if they reach consensus at an informal gathering in Algiers this month, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said during a visit to Algeria, the country's state news agency APS reported on Sunday. Barkindo said he was optimistic about the meeting in Algeria on Sept. 26-28.
  
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• Glencore court ruling in Zambia may trigger new pollution claims

  18-09-2016 15:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Mining giant forced to pay damages after high court rules sulphur dioxide emissions at subsidiary copper plant led to death of politicianToxic fumes from one of Glencore’s copper plants in Zambia caused the death of a politician, the African country’s high court said, in a ruling that could trigger fresh claims against the company.The London-listed mining and commodities trader was ordered to pay 400,000 Zambian kwacha (£30,000) in damages to the widower of Beatrice Mithi, a po
  
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• OPEC chief says may call extraordinary meeting if consensus reached in Algiers - APS

  18-09-2016 15:55
  OPEC members may call an extraordinary meeting to discuss oil prices if they reach consensus during an informal gathering in Algiers this month, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo said during a visit to Algeria, the country's state news agency APS said on Sunday. Barkindo said he was optimistic about the meeting in Algeria on Sept. 26-28. "The informal gathering was proposed as a move to having an extraordinary meeting with the aim of taking decisions to stabilize the market," Barkindo sai
  
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• The Ethical Carnivore: 'I no longer feel we should all visit a slaughterhouse'

  18-09-2016 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In her new book, Louise Gray tracks her project to spend a year eating only meat she has killed herself. Here, she describes visiting an abattoir for the first timeI wasn’t prepared for my first slaughterhouse. I did not research the abattoir in question or tell my friends and family where I was going. I wore a new blouse from Topshop with startled fawns on it. But the worst thing I did was to meet the pigs beforehand.Gorgie City Farm seemed like such a positive place to start the project.
  
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• Sustainability Leaders Awards: Final entry deadline TOMORROW

  18-09-2016 14:47
  
  Individuals, businesses and organisations have until midnight on Tuesday (20 September) to submit their entries to the Sustainability Leaders Awards.
  
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• Clashes at Libyan oil ports as counter-attack repelled - officials

  18-09-2016 14:27
  By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Eastern Libyan forces said they had reestablished control over two oil ports where an ousted faction launched a counter-attack on Sunday, briefly seizing one of the terminals. The two ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, were among four seized by forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) on Sept. 11-12 from a Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) faction led by Ibrahim Jathran. The fighting came as the state-run National O
  
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• Libyan force counter attacks at oil ports, claims to retake control of Es Sider

  18-09-2016 11:10
  BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A Libyan force ousted a week ago from key oil ports counter attacked on Sunday, taking back control of Es Sider terminal and triggering clashes near Ras Lanuf port, spokesman for the force, Ali al-Hassi, and a port worker said. Es Sider and Ras Lanuf were among four ports seized by forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar on Sept. 11-12 from a Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) faction led by Ibrahim Jathran. No one from Haftar's forces could immediately be reac
  
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• Iran supports any move to stabilise oil market - Rouhani

  18-09-2016 09:14
  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran supports any move to stabilise the global oil market and lift prices, the Iranian oil ministry news agency SHANA quoted him as saying on Sunday. "Instability and falling oil prices are harmful to all countries, especially oil producers," Rouhani was quoted as saying by SHANA. "Tehran welcomes any move aimed at market stability and improvement of oil prices based on justice, fairness and fair quota of all the oil producers," the president said, referrin
  
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• Hinkley must not be taken as a precedent for other nuclear stations

  18-09-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Political reality made it hard for Theresa May to deny the French and Chinese their project. But other new plants still can, and should, be opposedDespite the majority of the British public being opposed to a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C, according to various surveys, Theresa May has approved the £18bn project.The arguments against it are well understood – cost, safety and national security. On the first point, George Osborne, the former chancellor, was on the radio s
  
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• Wildflowers on the verge of disappearing

  18-09-2016 07:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Roadsides are a haven for rare species, but council mowing is a threat. New schemes offer hopeOrchid-spotters have long-known that the best site in the UK to take in a display of pyramidal orchids is a roadside verge in Warwickshire, yet the role verges play in conservation isn’t widely appreciated. There are almost 251,000 acres of rural road verges across the country that are home to 703 species of wild plants – 87 of which are facing extinction.Britain has lost 97% of its wildflow
  
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• The eco guide to noise pollution

  18-09-2016 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Peace and quiet is an increasingly scarce commodity in the modern worldSilence is golden – or at least it should be. But according to the Noise Abatement Society (NAS), it’s increasingly rare. “Peace is a precious commodity,” says Poppy Szkiler, of Quiet Mark, part of the NAS.Anti-noise campaigners suggest we have a “sliding baseline” in terms of our expectation of quiet time. This ecological term refers to an incremental lowering of standards as each generati
  
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• VW's Audi R&D head to be suspended over emissions scandal -Bild am Sonntag

  18-09-2016 04:43
  Volkswagen's Audi head of development will be suspended this coming week as part of the investigation into an emissions scandal, Bild am Sonntag reported citing sources. Investigations by Jones Day have shown that Stefan Knirsch, an Audi board member, knew about the use of cheat software in 3.0 litre diesel engines and gave a false promise under oath, the paper said on Sunday. Audi has admitted that its 3.0 litre V6 diesel engine was fitted with emissions-control software, deemed as illegal in t
  
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• The Observer view on global warming

  18-09-2016 01:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Time is running out for Britain to sign up to the Paris climate change accordThe sea ice covering the most northerly part of our planet shrank last week to its second lowest level on record. Once stable at around 7.5m sq km in summer, the Arctic ice cap has been dwindling for several decades and dropped to an area of 4.1m sq km a few days ago, a victim of the rising fossil-fuel emissions and increasing temperatures that now beset the Earth. At the same time, the US space agency Nasa announced th
  
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• Arctic nations square up as clamour for resources grows

  18-09-2016 01:05 via theguardian.com
  
  With the Danes rebuffing Russia, and Canada laying further claim to the Northwest Passage, rising access to north pole reserves risks flashpointsKristian Jensen, Denmark’s foreign minister, gave a precise response last week to a request by Russia for the nations to enter bilateral talks over the ownership of the north pole. He flatly rejected the move. “We need to apply the international rules,” he told reporters.The Russian request and the swift Danish response are intriguing.
  
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• Buzzards back in hunters’ crosshairs over threat to UK pheasant shoots

  18-09-2016 01:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Licences for gamekeepers to kill the protected bird of prey will open the floodgates to illegal hunting, warn conservationistsTim Boxall points at a shape in the field bordering the seven-acre wooded pen where he keeps 1,500 pheasants. “Here you are,” he says. “Look! There’s one over here.” He bends down and prises the remains of a pheasant from the long grass. “That’s a buzzard kill, you can tell by the way it’s been eaten.”Boxall is a gamek
  
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• VW's Audi R&D head to be suspended over emissions scandal: Bild am Sonntag

  18-09-2016 00:03
  Volkswagen's Audi head of development will be suspended this coming week as part of the investigation into an emissions scandal, Bild am Sonntag reported citing sources. Investigations by Jones Day have shown that Stefan Knirsch, an Audi board member, knew about the use of cheat software in 3.0 litre diesel engines and gave a false promise under oath, the paper said on Sunday. Audi has admitted that its 3.0 litre V6 diesel engine was fitted with emissions-control software, deemed as illegal in t
  
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