Environment news

• Taking shelter from the blinding sheets of rain: Country diary 100 years ago

  16-10-2016 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 17 October 1916Grey clouds, like wisps of smoke, raced yesterday across a sullen, leady sky, and the roaring woods scattered their bronzed leaves for the savage wind to play with. Then the scud came, rain wind-driven in blinding sheets, forcing the cattle under the lee of the hedge and rattling on the thatched stack like hail. But soon all changed; the rain stopped, the sky cleared, and the sun found a gap through which it could shine cheerfully
  
  Read more

• Malcolm Turnbull meets media bosses as parliament resumes – politics live

  16-10-2016 23:23 via theguardian.com
  
  The Coalition prepares to bring registered organisations bill to crack down on unions while the windfarm commissioner will appear before Senate estimates. Follow the day’s news live … 10.17pm BSTGood morning blogan family, I am strangely calm this morning. It could be that we are in the eye of the storm. It could be that I have crossed into a parliamentary twilight zone. It is most likely to be this agenda today.The guest list is understood to have included editor of The Australian,
  
  Read more

• Deal with Rosneft is U.S. sanctions-compliant, says Essar Group CEO

  16-10-2016 22:34
  By Nidhi Verma and Promit Mukherjee MUMBAI (Reuters) - The $12.9 billion (10.6 billion pounds) sale of India's Essar Oil to a group led by Russia's Rosneft does not run foul of U.S. sanctions imposed against the majority state-owned Russian energy firm, parent Essar Group's CEO said on Sunday. It is the biggest foreign acquisition ever in India and Russia's largest outbound deal. The deal that will give Rosneft , commodities trading house Trafigura [TRAFGF.UL] and private investment group United
  
  Read more

• A long-distance traveller on a refuelling stopover

  16-10-2016 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  A bar-tailed godwit on the mudflats may be on her way from the Arctic to sub-Saharan Africa. But she’s a lightweight compared to her New Zealand cousinsA long-billed, long-legged wader stands on the edge of the mud, waiting for the tide to recede so she can begin to feed. Nothing about her stands out: she isn’t strikingly pied like the avocets; she doesn’t have the curlew’s impossibly long, curved bill; and she isn’t flying around while yelling a frantic, urgent cal
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Science, cities and innovation in the human age

  16-10-2016 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Josh Tewksbury: Over the next week, leaders from around the world will take part in a historic summit on the future of cities. But this landmark event highlights how the pace of science may be unable to keep up with today’s rapidly-changing world. Science, cities and innovation in the human ageOver the next week, leaders from around the world will take part in a historic summit on the future of cities. But this landmark event also highlights how the pace of science may be unable to keep up
  
  Read more

• In their clamour for shale gas, ministers forgot the climate agreement | Letters

  16-10-2016 20:59 via theguardian.com
  
  No amount of spin or legal obfuscation can reconcile the UK government’s clamour for shale gas with its obligations as enshrined in the Paris climate change agreement. Consequently, when the UK’s communities secretary, Sajid Javid, gave the go-ahead for fracking in Lancashire (Report, 7 October), he was making a clear statement that the government has no interest in abiding by either the spirit or the maths of the Paris agreement.Shale gas is a high carbon energy source. When used fo
  
  Read more

• Get a Life: The Diaries of Vivienne Westwood – digested read

  16-10-2016 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘My vinyasa flow is interrupted by Lady Gaga inviting me to LA to discuss my Cool Earth project. After dinner with the Dalai Lama, I fly back to London’I’ve been a supporter of Leonard, a Native American who has been wrongly imprisoned for 35 years, for a long time. He writes me letters that I eventually reply to. “Dear Leonard, so sorry for not writing to you earlier. I have been rushed off my feet doing yoga, going to dinner in Paris and working on my 20-page manifesto
  
  Read more

• Kuwait ruler dissolves parliament, opens way for elections

  16-10-2016 17:44
  By Ahmed Hagagy KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwait's emir ordered the dissolution of parliament on Sunday, opening the way to fresh elections, saying "security challenges" in the region could best be addressed by consulting the popular will. A ballot would be the seventh since 2006 in the Gulf Arab state, where political strains have long held up economic development and the government is trying to introduce painful cuts to longstanding welfare benefits. Political stability in the major oil producer has
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• European Schiaparelli probe on target for Mars landing

  16-10-2016 17:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Europe’s Schiaparelli spacecraft is ejected by its “mothership” and is now on a direct course to try to land on Mars on Wednesday.
  
  Read more

• U.S., Britain call for immediate ceasefire in Yemen

  16-10-2016 16:54
  The United States and Britain called on Sunday for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Yemen to end violence between Iran-backed Houthis and the government, which is supported by Gulf states. A Saudi-led campaign in Yemen has come under heavy criticism since an air strike a week ago on a funeral gathering in the Yemeni capital Sanaa that killed 140 people according to a United Nations' estimate and 82 according to the Houthis. On Saturday, a U.S. admiral said a destroyer had again been t
  
  Read more

• The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week

  16-10-2016 15:41
  
  25 New 'Dead Sea Scrolls’ Revealed: More than 25 previously unpublished "Dead Sea Scroll" fragments, dating back 2,000 years and holding text from the Hebrew Bible, have been brought to light, their contents detailed in two new books. Brain-Implanted Device Restores Sense of Touch in Man with Spinal Cord Injury: For the first time, a device implanted into the brain of a person with a spinal cord injury has been used to restore the patient's sense of touch. How Did a Chunk of India and Eura
  
  Read more

• This new technology could save the troubled nuclear power industry

  16-10-2016 15:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Small nuclear reactors, funded by investors like Bill Gates, are emerging in the US as cheaper, safer alternatives to traditional nuclear power plant designsThe future of the nuclear industry may happen somewhere on scenic but relatively isolated land that’s about 100 miles southwest of Yellowstone National Park. Amid the 890-square-mile Idaho National Laboratory campus, a plan is in motion to build a type of nuclear reactor unlike any that’s currently in use to produce electricity.
  
  Read more

• English Heritage mobilises army of bulb planters to fend off foreign invasion

  16-10-2016 12:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Volunteers to plant 25,000 bulbs to block relentless march of Spanish bluebells and alien daffodils that threaten native varieties
  A small army of bulb planters is being mobilised for the battle to save some of the England’s best-loved flowers, native daffodils and bluebells, from the threat of foreign invasion.English Heritage gardeners and volunteers will be planting 25,000 spring flowering bulbs this week at properties up and down the country from Northumberland to the Isle of Wight &nd
  
  Read more

• How climate change triggers earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes

  16-10-2016 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Global warming may not only be causing more destructive hurricanes, it could also be shaking the ground beneath our feetDevastating hurricane? More than 1,000 lives lost? It must be climate change! Almost inevitably, Hurricane Matthew’s recent rampage across the Caribbean and south-eastern US has been fingered by some as a backlash of global warming driven by humanity’s polluting activities, but does this really stack up?The short answer is no. Blame for a single storm cannot be laid
  
  Read more

• China poised for space station mission

  16-10-2016 12:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  China is poised to launch a rocket carrying two astronauts to its orbiting space station on Monday morning.
  
  Read more

• Milan leads the fight against food waste – with ugly fruit and grassroots activists

  16-10-2016 11:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Since its 2015 Expo, Milan has been busy thinking about food. Laws, apps and chefs are all actively fighting food waste – and as countries celebrate World Food Day, can the Italian sustainable food revolution spread to other cities?On a Saturday afternoon, as soon as the market is drawing to a close, traders bring their boxes of unsold fruit and vegetables to a corner of Viale Papiniano in Milan. They are welcomed by Rebecca, a 25-year-old student who’s behind Recup, a project that d
  
  Read more

• Milan leads fight against food waste – with ugly fruit and Michelin-starred soup kitchens

  16-10-2016 11:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Since its 2015 Expo, Milan has been busy thinking about food. Laws, apps and chefs are all actively fighting food waste – and as countries celebrate World Food Day, can the momentum spread to other cities?On a Saturday afternoon, as soon as the market is drawing to a close, traders bring their boxes of unsold fruit and vegetables to a corner of Viale Papiniano in Milan. They are welcomed by Rebecca, a 25-year-old student who’s behind Recup, a project that distributes leftover food to
  
  Read more

• Oil majors experiment with technology to weather crisis

  16-10-2016 11:30
  By Karolin Schaps and Jessica Jaganathan LONDON/OSLO (Reuters) - Oil majors including Statoil, Shell and Chevron are experimenting with various technologies, from drones and drill design to data management, to drive down costs and weather a deep downturn. For example, simply finding a more efficient route for the oil pipeline that would carry the crude from the Sverdrup field to the onshore refinery cut 1 billion crowns, Statoil said.
  
  Read more

• OFM Awards 2016 best ethical restaurant: Silo

  16-10-2016 11:30 via theguardian.com
  
  At his Brighton restaurant, voted Best Ethical by OFM readers, Doug McMaster grinds his own flour, churns his own butter, and ships his coffee in by sailboat
  Click here for the full list of runners upDoug McMaster, the 29-year-old owner of Silo in Brighton, spends a lot of time thinking about oven cleaner. “My oven only takes one type of cleaning product,” he says, “and the only way to get that cleaning product is in a plastic container.”This bothers him, because at Silo
  
  Read more

• World Food Day: coping with the climate's impact on food security – in pictures

  16-10-2016 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Every day, one in nine people around the world do not have enough food to support a healthy, active lifestyle. The problem has been compounded by climate change, which often has a devastating impact on food security. Severe drought across three continents has led to shortages of food, water and energy in recent months. Tearfund is helping communities to grow crops, find alternative sources of food or fuel, and increase resilience to climate changePhotographs: TearfundContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• OFM Awards 2016 best producer: Murt’s Shellfish

  16-10-2016 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  With a background in marine conservation, Johnny Murt is ‘the template for a modern fisherman’. (And he supplies brilliant crab to some of Britain’s best restaurants)The fisherman’s code stipulates that you exaggerate the size of your catch, but that doesn’t apply to commercial fishing, says Johnny Murt. “You’re constantly telling everyone how rubbish the fishing is, even when it’s not,” he laughs. “It’s all part of the game.&rdqu
  
  Read more

• Hunted to the brink, but Africa’s reviled vultures are vital in fight against disease

  16-10-2016 01:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Wildlife photojournalist of the year exposes the plight of the endangered scavengerVultures are rarely viewed as the poster boys and girls of the natural world. They have repulsive eating habits and are strikingly ugly. Nevertheless, they play a critical role in maintaining the ecological health of many parts of the world.Vultures consume animal carcasses more effectively than any other scavengers and because their digestive juices contain acids that neutralise pathogens such as cholera and rabi
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!