Environment news

• Oil ends down, then jumps on chance of another U.S. crude draw

  04-10-2016 23:21
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil settled down on Tuesday after a surging dollar offset optimism over planned OPEC output cuts, before a report suggesting another weekly drop in U.S. crude stocks took prices up again post-settlement toward four-month highs. The American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade group, reported that domestic crude inventories likely fell for a fifth straight week, declining by 7.6 million barrels. If the EIA reports another drawdown, "it means we can't take fo
  
  Read more

• UAE says Houthi attack on ship in shipping lane was act of terrorism

  04-10-2016 23:06
  The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday Yemeni Houthi forces had attacked a UAE civilian vessel in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane off the coast of Yemen at the weekend and called the incident an act of terrorism. The UAE foreign ministry, in a statement carried by state news agency WAM, said the civilian ship was targeted by Houthi militia near the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen's southern coast on Saturday. In a statement on Saturday the Houthis said their forces had fired a missile that
  
  Read more

• We're eating more antibiotic-free chicken. But what about beef?

  04-10-2016 22:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Companies like Perdue and Tyson Foods are reducing or eliminating antibiotic use in chickens. Pork and beef producers need to keep upEvery parent wants to be the most powerful proponents that she or he can be when it comes to their children’s health. As a pair of moms who also happen to be longtime public interest advocates – both of us fighting to stem the rise of antibiotic resistance – we can’t help but have our children in the front of our minds when we go to work eac
  
  Read more

• Oil down after 4-month highs on dollar's rise, stockpile worry

  04-10-2016 21:03
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil settled slightly lower in choppy trade on Tuesday as a surging dollar and anticipation of higher U.S. crude stockpiles offset optimism about planned OPEC output cuts that initially took Brent to four-month highs. A slump in equity prices on Wall Street also weighed on oil. [.N] Brent crude settled down 2 cents at $50.87 a barrel, after rising earlier to $51.37, its highest since June 10. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude closed down 12 cents at
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• New Technology Helps Pinpoint Sources of Water Contamination

  04-10-2016 21:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  Berkeley Lab develops better method of environmental monitoring using the PhyloChip, finds surprising results in Russian River watershedWhen the local water management agency closes your favorite beach due to unhealthy water quality, how reliable are the tests they base their decisions on? As it turns out, those tests, as well as the standards behind them, have not been updated in decades. Now scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a highly accurate,
  
  Read more

• Nobel laureate: 'Follow your dreams'

  04-10-2016 20:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Professor Duncane Haldane is one of three British-born scientists to win the Nobel Prize for Physics.
  
  Read more

• Monitoring your own power isn’t so simple | Letters

  04-10-2016 20:03 via theguardian.com
  
  A few years ago our electricity supplier provided us with a simple device to monitor our use. It tells us how much power we are using and what it is costing, by day and by month. Of course, there is always a small trickle because of various clocks around the house, the fridge, etc. But when we switch the kettle on, it suddenly tells us we are spending £375 a month (of course it is only for five minutes). This device provides us with a conversation piece and not much else. We already send o
  
  Read more

• NASA Sees Powerful Hurricane Matthew from Space (Video)

  04-10-2016 19:22
  
  As Hurricane Matthew swirled over the Caribbean yesterday (Oct. 3), the International Space Station caught a glimpse of the massive storm. The space station flew over the Category 4 hurricane at 4:10 p.m. EDT as the storm made its way north through the Caribbean Sea.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The British police targeting bird poachers in Cyprus

  04-10-2016 19:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The British authorities in Cyprus are doubling the number of officers targeting illegal songbird trapping on British military territory on the island.
  
  Read more

• UK police tackle Cyprus bird poachers

  04-10-2016 19:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The UK authorities in Cyprus are doubling the number of officers targeting illegal songbird trapping on British military territory.
  
  Read more

• 'Great Pacific garbage patch' far bigger than imagined, aerial survey shows

  04-10-2016 19:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Giant collection of fishing nets, plastic containers and other discarded items called a ‘ticking time bomb’ as large items crumble into micro plasticsThe vast patch of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean is far worse than previously thought, with an aerial survey finding a much larger mass of fishing nets, plastic containers and other discarded items than imagined. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• How can businesses drive behaviour change through energy efficiency schemes?

  04-10-2016 18:50
  
  Businesses can create employee engagement with energy efficiency programmes through simple messages focused on positive impacts and the development of energy management schemes.
  
  Read more

• With EU backing, Paris climate deal clears last hurdle to taking effect

  04-10-2016 18:48
  By Foo Yun Chee STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Parliament approved the Paris accord to fight climate change on Tuesday, tipping it over the threshold needed for the global deal to enter into force, in what U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon hailed as an historic vote. The Paris Agreement reached by nearly 200 nations nearly one year ago will help guide a radical shift of the world economy away from fossil fuels in order to limit heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels. European Union approva
  
  Read more

• OPEC sights set for now on $50-60 per barrel oil - PIRA's Ross

  04-10-2016 18:38
  By Simon Webb NEW YORK (Reuters) - OPEC producers have their sights set on a sustained oil price of $50-$60 per barrel, a modest ambition for the first cut in supply by the oil exporting group in eight years, says one of the industry's top forecasters. Benchmark U.S. oil prices have risen around $4, or around nine percent, to over $48 per barrel since the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed last week to shave output. "You don't manage the market unless you have a pric
  
  Read more

• Business collaboration key to developing city climate action plans, says Aecom

  04-10-2016 18:37
  
  The private sector should act as a catalyst for collaboration that enables businesses and city governments to create robust solutions to tackling climate change, with current municipalities lacking the resources to tackle issues in isolation.
  
  Read more

• Standard Chartered, HSBC issue $500 million letter of credit to Ghana

  04-10-2016 17:58
  HSBC and Standard Chartered issued a $500 million letter of credit to Ghana on Tuesday to guarantee the national oil company's payments for gas extracted from the offshore Sankofa field. The companies said in a statement the deal with Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) should provide security over gas expected to flow in 2018 from the $7.9 billion (£6.2 billion) offshore oil and gas field being developed by Italy's ENI . "The facility will guarantee GNPC's payment obligations to e
  
  Read more

• Oil hits four-month high on OPEC speculation; cut gains on dollar

  04-10-2016 17:36
  By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices drifted on Tuesday, with Brent hitting four-month highs on a rally inspired by OPEC plans to tighten output before pulling back as a surging dollar weighed on greenback-denominated commodities. Earlier, Brent fell to $50.34. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 3 cents at $48.78.
  
  Read more

• The 'well from hell' – my fight with BP to film Deepwater Horizon

  04-10-2016 17:07 via theguardian.com
  
  The 2010 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico triggered an environmental catastrophe and resulted in unbelievable human heroism – so it was a natural fit for Hollywood. But what do you do when your film leads you into conflict with a corporate oil giant? The film’s director, Peter Berg, explainsWhen you start working on a film, you make your plans. First, there’s the script development, sharpening the screenplay, making sure that characters resonate and pop and are as colourful as t
  
  Read more

• Scientists discover hidden world of Hawaii's coral 'twilight zone'

  04-10-2016 16:39 via theguardian.com
  
  20-year study of deep reefs finds algae meadows and swaths of continuous coral with the highest rate of species found nowhere else in Earth’s seasThe “twilight zone” of Hawaii’s deep coral reefs are home to vast algae meadows and support the highest rates of species found nowhere else in Earth’s seas, scientists have discovered.A 20-year study of the archipelago’s poorly-explored mesophotic – middle light – coral zone also found the deep-reef habit
  
  Read more

• Paris climate deal: EU backs landmark agreement

  04-10-2016 16:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The European Parliament backs the ratification of the Paris climate deal, the world's first comprehensive climate agreement.
  
  Read more

• Oil touches four-month high as output freeze returns centre stage

  04-10-2016 16:23
  By Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - Brent oil futures touched a four-month high on Tuesday as investor confidence grew in last week's deal by oil producers to freeze output levels in order to stem a two-year price rout. Benchmark Brent crude oil futures reached a four-month high of $51.37 a barrel, but relinquished some of the gains by 1358 GMT, trading at $51.10, up 21 cents on the previous close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude touched the highest level in three months at $49.13 a ba
  
  Read more

• Strange matter wins physics Nobel

  04-10-2016 16:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three British-born scientists for discoveries about strange forms of matter.
  
  Read more

• Diary of a wildlife garden: the robin's return | Kate Bradbury

  04-10-2016 15:02 via theguardian.com
  
  The sight of a robin lifts the heart of Kate Bradbury as she works on her new wildlife gardenIn the darkest days of January, after I had taken up the decking and dug a hole to plant my apple tree, a robin became the first visitor to my newly-made wildlife garden. She appeared in a flash on top of the fence, flew to the wall and then spotted me and darted off again. She had been here before, I realised, perhaps lured by the recently unveiled earth and its unearthed worms, or the new compost heap,
  
  Read more

• Why is Haiti vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters?

  04-10-2016 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Poor infrastructure, deforestation and failure to prepare for earthquakes and storms put the island at very high riskHaiti, which is feeling the force of Hurricane Matthew, with winds of 145mph and 3ft of rain, is all too accustomed to natural hazards and disasters.
  The Caribbean country is regularly battered by tropical storms and floods and has also been struck by powerful earthquakes. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Paris Agreement to enter into force next month as EU ratifies

  04-10-2016 14:35
  
  The historic Paris Agreement will enter into force before the COP22 Marrakech event next month after the European Parliament approved its fast-track ratification today (4 October).
  
  Read more

• Paris Agreement to enter into force next month after EU ratifies

  04-10-2016 14:35
  
  The historic Paris Agreement will enter into force before the COP22 Marrakech event next month after the European Parliament approved its fast-track ratification today (4 October).
  
  Read more

• Paris Agreement poised to enter into full force as EU ratifies

  04-10-2016 14:35
  
  The historic Paris Agreement will enter into force before the COP22 Marrakech event next month after the European Parliament approved its fast-track ratification today (4 October).
  
  Read more

• Green groups accuse Sadiq Khan of betrayal over east London tunnel

  04-10-2016 14:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Critics of £1bn Silvertown tunnel highlight pollution risk and say mayor of London was against idea during election campaignLondon’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has angered green campaigners by approving a controversial four-lane road tunnel in east London.Critics of the £1bn Silvertown tunnel linking the Greenwich peninsula and the Royal Dock accused Khan of betrayal when he announced the go-ahead for a modified version of the plan on Tuesday. They suggested he was against the idea dur
  
  Read more

• President Obama and Leonardo DiCaprio talk climate change at the White House – video

  04-10-2016 14:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Leonardo DiCaprio joins President Barack Obama at the White House ahead of a screening of his new documentary, Before the Flood. The actor says: “If you don’t believe in climate change, you don’t believe in facts, and science, and empirical truths,” he says. “And, in my humble opinion, [you] should not be allowed to hold public office.” The words were interpreted as a slight against presidential candidate Donald TrumpLeonardo DiCaprio: climate change deniers s
  
  Read more

• Future increase in plant photosynthesis revealed by seasonal carbon dioxide cycle

  04-10-2016 14:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  Doubling of the carbon dioxide concentration will cause global plant photosynthesis to increase by about one third, according to a paper published in the journal NatureThe study has relevance for the health of the biosphere because photosynthesis provides the primary food-source for animal life, but it also has great relevance for future climate change.
  
  Read more

• Video: DiCaprio and Obama on role of business and carbon tax in the climate 'battle against time'

  04-10-2016 13:47
  
  US President Barack Obama has called on businesses to invest and innovate in order to "build a bridge to a clean energy future" during an interview with actor-turned-environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, warning that the planet is in a "race against time" to combat climate change.
  
  Read more

• Video: DiCaprio and Obama on the role of business and carbon tax in the climate 'battle against time'

  04-10-2016 13:39
  
  US President Barack Obama has called on businesses to invest and innovate in order to "build a bridge to a clean energy future" during an interview with actor-turned-environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, warning that the planet is in a "race against time" to combat climate change.
  
  Read more

• EU backing to tip Paris climate deal over threshold to take effect

  04-10-2016 13:32
  By Foo Yun Chee STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Parliament backed the Paris accord to fight climate change on Tuesday, tipping it over the threshold needed for the global deal to enter into force, in what U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon hailed as an historic vote. The Paris Agreement, backed by nearly 200 nations nearly one year ago, will help guide a radical shift of the world economy away from fossil fuels in an effort to limit heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels. European Union appr
  
  Read more

• Oil eases as Iran, Libya output rises hit OPEC deal momentum

  04-10-2016 13:00
  By Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices eased on Tuesday on news that Iran and Libya have continued to increase production, overshadowing an OPEC agreement struck last week to freeze output levels in a bid to stem a two-year price rout. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 24 cents at $48.57 a barrel. Add to these that the dollar is strengthening and you have a bearish cocktail," said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Oil Associates in London.
  
  Read more

• Iran's Zanganeh says non-OPEC cooperation will help steady oil prices - SHANA

  04-10-2016 12:35
  ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran's oil minister said that the cooperation of non-OPEC producers would play an important role in stabilising oil prices, the ministry's official website SHANA reported. "The situation is getting better ... the non-OPEC oil producer countries can help oil price stability," Bijan Zanganeh told reporters in Tehran, SHANA reported on Tuesday . He also said Iran will sign more contracts by March 2017 to develop its oil fields. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi, editing by Louise Heavens
  
  Read more

• Moixa launches solar storage scheme

  04-10-2016 12:22
  
  Home battery storage company Moixa has launched a solar storage offer to protect households from rising prices.
  
  Read more

• By failing to rein in climate change, our children's rights are being disregarded | James Dyke

  04-10-2016 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  A paper from the prominent Nasa climate scientist James Hansen reminds us of the debt young people face if we continue our high fossil fuel emissions The past is a different country – take the USSR during 1988 which was being convulsed as Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika swept through the nation. A nation that three years later would no longer exist. The world’s greatest experiment with communism was coming to an end.
  In June that same year, a scientist would testify to the Unit
  
  Read more

• Oil falls as Iran, Libya output rises hit OPEC deal momentum

  04-10-2016 11:09
  By Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell nearly one percent on Tuesday on news that Iran and Libya have continued to increase production, overshadowing an OPEC agreement struck last week to freeze output levels in a bid to stem a two-year price rout. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 42 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $48.39 a barrel. Add to these that the dollar is strengthening and you have a bearish cocktail," said Tamas Varga, analyst at PVM Oil Associates in London.
  
  Read more

• Sharks and rays win new protections at global wildlife summit

  04-10-2016 10:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Cites votes for new measures to control the trade in silky and thresher sharks, hunted for their fins, and devil rays, whose gills are prized as a medicinal ‘cure’Silky sharks, thresher sharks and devil rays all won new protections at a global wildlife summit late on Monday.Sharks are the ocean’s top predators and play a vital role in many ecosystems but many species have been decimated by uncontrolled fishing, particularly the trade in fins which are used in soup in Asia. Cont
  
  Read more

• Renewable energy: get your story straight, ACT tells Coalition

  04-10-2016 10:35 via theguardian.com
  
  ACT’s deputy chief minister, Simon Corbell, says there is ‘inconsistency’ in federal government’s linking of South Australia blackout to renewablesThe Australian Capital Territory deputy chief minister, Simon Corbell, has urged the Turnbull government to get its story straight on renewable energy targets before Friday’s special meeting of energy ministers convened after power blackouts in South Australia.
  Corbell, in an interview with Guardian Australia on Tuesday,
  
  Read more

• Costain launches UK vehicle-to-grid project

  04-10-2016 09:30
  
  Construction and civil engineering firm Costain has announced it is investigating the business case for the development of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) energy infrastructure in London, in the same week that it completed a study on the role of alternative-fuelled vehicles in creating on-site and supply chain carbon reductions.
  
  Read more

• Oil prices fall on surging Iran sales, but looming OPEC deal offers support

  04-10-2016 09:24
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday on a rise in Iranian exports which add to a global supply overhang, although a planned OPEC-led production cut later this year offered some support. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 32 cents, or 0.66 percent, at $48.49 a barrel. Traders said prices were dented by the latest rise in Iranian crude and condensate sales, which likely reached about 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, almost matching a 2
  
  Read more

• What will our children say after we let all the lions die? | Patrick Barkham

  04-10-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Manmade policies are wiping out species at an unprecedented rate, yet our politicians allow fat cat hunters to plunder Africa’s dwindling lion populationToughie is a 12-year-old frog with huge black eyes and chestnut-brown skin. Last week, he was found dead in the zoo where he lived alone, and another thread was torn from the tapestry of life on Earth.Toughie was the last known Rabbs’ fringe-limbed tree frog. When he expired, I happened to be reading The Song of the Dodo, by David Qu
  
  Read more

• Solar outstrips coal in past six months of UK electricity generation

  04-10-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  More power came from solar panels than from Britain’s ageing coal stations from April to September this year, report shows Electricity generated by solar panels on fields and homes outstripped Britain’s ageing coal power stations over the past six months in a historic first.Climate change analysts Carbon Brief found more electricity came from the sun than coal from April to the end of September, in a report that highlighted the two technologies’ changing fortunes.Continue readi
  
  Read more

• Oil prices dip on surging Iran sales, but looming OPEC deal offers support

  04-10-2016 07:32
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Tuesday on a rise in Iranian exports that adds to a global supply overhang, but a planned OPEC-led production cut later this year offered some support. International Brent crude oil futures were trading at $50.70 per barrel at 0519 GMT, down 18 cents from their previous close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 25 cents at $48.56 a barrel.
  
  Read more

• Sublime moment with a warbler on the canyon's rim

  04-10-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Vikos Gorge, Greece Wrapped right around our planet from Alaska to Vladivostok, these migrant birds are draining south now among us allThis extraordinary Epirot valley is claimed to be the world’s deepest gorge, and from a spot called Beloi it seemed a reasonable notion. Yet it must be said that reason is the part of human equipment least appropriate to this experience. For, just to get there, you had to descend through a scramble of boulders and use all four limbs in tandem to map the nex
  
  Read more

• Planet at its hottest in 115,000 years thanks to climate change, experts say

  04-10-2016 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Global warming is said to be bringing temperatures last seen during an interglacial era, when sea level was 6-9 meters (20-30ft) higher than todayThe global temperature has increased to a level not seen for 115,000 years, requiring daunting technological advances that will cost the coming generations hundreds of trillions of dollars, according to the scientist widely credited with bringing climate change to the public’s attention.
  A new paper submitted by James Hansen, a former senior Nasa
  
  Read more

• Trees thought to be extinct in UK found at Queen's residence in Edinburgh

  04-10-2016 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Two 100ft Wentworth elms were ‘hidden in plain sight’ and spotted during recent tree survey at Holyrood PalaceTrees believed to have been extinct in Britain have been discovered at the Queen’s official residence in Scotland.
  The two 30-metre (98ft) Wentworth elms have been identified in the Queen’s garden at the Palace of Holyroodhouse just a stone’s throw from the centre of Edinburgh. Tree experts are now looking into ways of propagating the rare specimens, which c
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!