Environment news

• Solar-panel picnic tables and bus stops? Students starting a 'solar-cell revolution'

  03-11-2016 23:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  A group of BYU engineering students wants to start a solar-cell revolution.Led by mechanical engineering professor John Salmon, the students hope to trigger energy change by installing solar cells in public locations you wouldn’t think of, such as:Bus stopsPark picnic tables and benchesCafeterias and restaurantsCar window shadesStadium SeatsBlinds
  
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• 'The heat is there': is there a future for geothermal energy in Australia?

  03-11-2016 22:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite millions of dollars invested, the Australian geothermal energy industry remains in its infancy. Will Arena’s cautious optimism be rewarded?In July 2010, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) took a $32m gamble on geothermal energy, investing in Australia’s first demonstration of geothermal electricity generation.Six years later, the wells in South Australia’s Cooper Basin have been filled with concrete and abandoned, and the geothermal exploration company invol
  
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• Boat that attacked gas tanker off Yemen carried explosives - shipowner

  03-11-2016 21:17
  By Jonathan Saul LONDON (Reuters) - Unknown assailants who opened fire on a gas tanker last week off the coast of Yemen were also carrying a "substantial amount of explosives", the vessel's owner said on Thursday, and a maritime source said it may have been an attempted suicide attack. Security experts said the new details of the Oct. 25 incident would heighten concerns for shipping in the narrow Bab al-Mandab waterway at the entrance to the Red Sea, a major choke point in the world oil trade. I
  
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• Oil ends down on U.S. inventory surge, doubts on OPEC resolve

  03-11-2016 20:59
  By Ethan Lou NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices settled down more than 1 percent on Thursday as investors reeled from a record weekly surge in U.S. crude inventories, and remained sceptical about whether OPEC can actually implement its planned output cap. U.S. crude fell 68 cents, or 1.5 percent, to settle at $44.66 per barrel. Traders said energy monitoring service Genscape reported a weekly build of 1.2 million barrels at the U.S. delivery base in Cushing, Oklahoma.
  
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• Your carbon footprint destroys 30 square metres of Arctic sea ice a year

  03-11-2016 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  New research calculates the impact of the average westerner’s carbon emissions to help people understand their own contribution to climate changeThe average westerner’s carbon emissions destroy 30 square metres of Arctic sea ice every year, according to new research. The work indicates that, even with current efforts to cut emissions, the Arctic will lose all its ice in summer within about 20 years. Continue reading...
  
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• Fireworks’ part in toxic air pollution | Letters

  03-11-2016 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Delhi was this week blanketed with toxic fog after hundreds of thousands of people set off fireworks to mark Diwali (Report, 1 November). The pollution levels were up to 42 times the safe limit and even exceeded the normal harmful air in the city from traffic. In Britain, firework night and the following day are the peak days for hospital admissions for asthma and other breathing problems. Fireworks pollute the air with toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, aluminium, cadmium and radioactive
  
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• Oil dips on U.S. inventory surge, doubts on OPEC resolve

  03-11-2016 19:11
  By Ethan Lou NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Thursday as investors were still reeling from a record weekly surge in U.S. crude inventories and many remained sceptical about whether OPEC will actually implement its planned output cap. U.S. crude was down 82 cents, or 1.8 percent, at $44.52 per barrel. Brent crude was down 65 cents, or 1.4 percent, at $46.21 a barrel by 1:31 p.m. EDT (1831 GMT).
  
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• Study links human actions to specific Arctic sea ice melt

  03-11-2016 19:04
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Driving a gas-powered car about 90 miles — the distance between New York and Philadelphia — melts about a square foot of Arctic sea ice in the critical month of September, according to a new study that directly links carbon pollution to the amount of ice that's thawing.
  
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• Australia being 'left behind' by global momentum on climate change

  03-11-2016 18:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate Institute says the speed with which the Paris agreement has come into force has caught the country by surpriseAustralia’s lack of progress on climate change policy is increasingly at odds with global momentum and risks leaving Australia’s economy behind, according to a new report.The Climate Institute has released a report called “COP 22 – Getting to Zero” in the lead-up to an international climate conference next week. Continue reading...
  
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• COP22: Seven green business wishes for the Marrakech climate talks

  03-11-2016 17:44
  
  edie hears sustainability professionals, businessmen and environmental activists to round-up exactly what the green economy wants to see from the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22) climate change talks in Marrakech, Morocco.
  
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• Can Radioactive Waste be Immobilized in Glass for Millions of Years?

  03-11-2016 17:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  How do you handle nuclear waste that will be radioactive for millions of years, keeping it from harming people and the environment?It isn’t easy, but Rutgers researcher Ashutosh Goel has discovered ways to immobilize such waste – the offshoot of decades of nuclear weapons production – in glass and ceramics.Goel, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is the primary inventor of a new method to immobilize radioactiv
  
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• Ebola adapted to easily infect people

  03-11-2016 17:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ebola dramatically adapted to infect human tissues with ease in the first few months of the Ebola outbreak.
  
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• Oil prices dip down on inventory boost, OPEC scepticism

  03-11-2016 16:45
  By Ethan Lou NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped on Thursday, with losses limited as an attack on a Nigerian pipeline cut the country's output even as investors remained sceptical about OPEC's planned production limit and surprised at a big build in U.S. crude inventories. Brent crude was down 20 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $46.66 a barrel by 11:05 a.m. EDT (15:05 GMT). Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets on Nov. 30 in Vienna to agree a producti
  
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• Longitudinal Study Links Air Pollution with Cardiovascular Disease Risk

  03-11-2016 16:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  An increased concentration of air pollution within metropolitan areas is associated with progression in coronary calcification and with acceleration of atherosclerosis, according to a study published in The Lancet.In the prospective, 10-year cohort study, Northwestern Medicine scientists and collaborators at other institutions repeatedly measured coronary artery calcium by CT scan in 6,795 participants aged 45 to 84 years, who were enrolled in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atheroscler
  
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• Greece set to win €1.75bn from EU climate scheme to build two coal plants

  03-11-2016 16:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Public funds from Europe’s carbon trading programme – set up to help poorer countries reduce emissions – will help build two plants that will emit about 7m tonnes of CO2 a yearGreece appears on track to win access to a controversial EU programme that could earmark up to €1.75bn (£1.56bn) in free carbon allowances for the building of two massive coal-fired power plants.The 1100MW coal stations will cost an estimated €2.4bn, and emit around 7m tonnes of CO2 a year
  
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• Environmental activist gears up for 6,000-mile bamboo bike ride

  03-11-2016 16:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Kate Rawles will ride a bike made from bamboo grown in Cornwall to raise awareness about the loss of biodiversity Continue reading...
  
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• Sterile flies released in Florida to combat flesh-eating worm

  03-11-2016 16:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Authorities in Florida are releasing sterile flies in a bid to stamp out a flesh-eating livestock disease that has returned to the US for the first time in 30 years.
  
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• Ancient Scratched Stones: World's Earliest Maps or Magic Artifacts?

  03-11-2016 16:07
  A set of broken stones covered with etchings of lines and squares, discovered at a 5,000-year-old sacred site in Denmark, may be some of humankind’s earliest maps, according to archaeologists. The researchers think the inscribed stones are symbolic maps of local landscapes, and were perhaps used in rituals by Stone Age farmers who hoped to magically influence the sun and the fertility of their farmlands. Fragments of 10 of the "map stones" or "landscape stones" were found in June, during e
  
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• Big Chinese rocket makes maiden flight

  03-11-2016 15:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  China has launched its biggest rocket to date - the Long March 5.
  
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• Zoology news: October's animal antics from round the globe – in pictures

  03-11-2016 14:46 via theguardian.com
  
  A collection of this month’s zoological wonders, featuring string-pulling bees, industrious echidnas and a geriatric panda Continue reading...
  
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• UK climate targets at risk without government support for windfarms, says energy boss

  03-11-2016 14:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Government should restore subsidies for onshore wind power as a cost-effective way of reducing the country’s emissions, says head of ScottishPowerThe UK’s climate targets are at risk if the government does not reverse its decision to end support for windfarms, the head of one of the Big Six energy companies has warned.Keith Anderson of ScottishPower said onshore wind power should be opened up to the government’s new subsidy regime because the technology could be deployed quickl
  
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• Energy from the dead and chameleon solar panels: The best green innovations of the week

  03-11-2016 14:00
  
  With the United Nations (UN) claiming that the Paris Agreement is unlikely to mitigate serious climate change, edie rounds up some of the latest and greatest green innovations that could help drive climate action.
  
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• UN review says carbon plans fall well short of climate goals

  03-11-2016 13:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  An analysis of national plans to cut carbon says they are still way above the levels needed to keep the rise in global temperatures under 2C.
  
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• James Webb: Two years to Hubble successor's launch

  03-11-2016 12:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Engineers finish assembling the telescope that will succeed Hubble. James Webb, as it is known, is now on track to be launched two years from now.
  
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• Tesla's Model 3 to utilise solar roof technology

  03-11-2016 12:11
  
  Tesla's recent foray into the solar market looks set to pay dividends for its highly anticipated Model 3, after the company's chief executive Elon Musk revealed that the recently launched solar roof panels would feature in some form on the new vehicle.
  
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• World on track for 3C of warming under current global climate pledges, warns UN

  03-11-2016 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Current climate commitments are insufficient to reduce emissions by the amounts needed to avoid dangerous levels of global warming, says Unep reportThe commitments made by governments on climate change will lead to dangerous levels of global warming because they are incommensurate with the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report. The United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) said that pledges put forward to cut emissions would see temperatures rise by 3C above pre-industr
  
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• UN: Paris Agreement still not good enough to avoid serious climate change

  03-11-2016 11:50
  
  Less than 24 hours before the Paris Agreement formally enters into force, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned that governments and the private sector must together scale-up climate ambition to reduce an additional 25% from predicted 2030 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
  
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• Oil prices find floor after falls on supply glut woes

  03-11-2016 11:40
  By Sabina Zawadzki LONDON (Reuters) - Crude oil futures edged up on Thursday, supported by news of an attack on a Nigerian oil pipeline and a weaker U.S. dollar, after four days of falls over scepticism that a global glut in crude supplies could be stemmed. Brent crude was trading up 33 cents, or 0.7 percent, at $47.19 a barrel by 1020 GMT. Futures hit five-week lows on Wednesday after data showed stocks of oil in the United States had risen by a record amount last week, adding negative sentimen
  
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• Glencore narrows EBIT trading view and pares oil output plans

  03-11-2016 10:21
  By Barbara Lewis and Esha Vaish LONDON/BENGALURU (Reuters) - Glencore on Thursday narrowed its expectations for pre-tax profit from trading on Thursday and lowered its oil production plans as the mining and trading firm waits for "a stronger price environment". Glencore narrowed its full-year earnings from trading before interest and tax (EBIT) view to a range of $2.5 billion (2 billion pounds) to $2.7 billion from $2.4 billion to $2.7 billion previously. Along with Anglo American , Glencore was
  
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• Energy security not about 'locking in status quo', says chief scientist

  03-11-2016 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Alan Finkel challenges renewables alarmism, saying they provide ‘many viable technology paths to cutting emissions’Australia’s chief scientist has challenged the resurgent political alarmism about renewable energy, saying energy security isn’t about locking in the status quo, it’s about ensuring the successful decarbonisation of electricity generation.In his first public comments since being asked to lead an energy security review for federal and state governments,
  
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• Collaboration the catalyst for circular economy adoption, say business leaders

  03-11-2016 08:00
  
  Businesses are beginning to understand and reap the benefits of implementing circular operating models, but adoption across numerous sectors will likely flounder unless enhanced cooperation paves the way to the "collaborative economy".
  
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• Warning over invasive flatworm posing threat to UK wildlife

  03-11-2016 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Brazilian worm arrived in a pot plant from Europe and preys on snails and earthworms that are essential for soil healthAn invasive flatworm from Brazil that poses a threat to soil health and wildlife has made its way to mainland Britain.A 4.5cm Obama flatworm (Obama nungara) – not linked to the US president but named after the Brazilian Tupi words for leaf (oba) and animal (ma) – was discovered this summer crawling out of a Heuchera plant imported from the Netherlands at a garden cen
  
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• The kind of morning that turns landscape into theatre

  03-11-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Stanhope Dene, Weardale For a few moments the falling rain became a silver sunlit curtain as it swept across the canopyWe knew we were going to get wet, probably very wet, but it was the kind of morning that turns landscape into dramatic theatre; dark clouds unleashing torrential showers, then sunshine breaking through gaps in the clouds, sweeping across fields and fell side.The first downpour arrived just as we made our way along the footpath that skirts the edge of the dene, a steep-sided clef
  
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• Oil prices rise on Nigeria pipeline attack, weaker dollar

  03-11-2016 06:02
  By Mark Tay SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Crude oil futures rose on Thursday as an attack on a Nigerian oil pipeline and a weaker U.S. dollar buoyed sentiment in the market, lifting prices from five-week lows. Brent crude was trading up 51 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $47.37 a barrel by 0415 GMT. Crude prices were underpinned by concerns about supply disruptions after militants in Nigeria's southern Niger Delta oil hub attacked a pipeline operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Wednesday
  
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• Suck it up: thorny dragons use their skin like a straw to drink water

  03-11-2016 04:05 via theguardian.com
  
  New research shows spiky reptiles’ mouths cannot lick up water so they shovel damp sand on to their backs and suck moisture through their skinThorny devil lizards shovel damp sand on to their backs and suck the moisture through their skin to their mouths, new research has found.The spiky reptiles live in the arid deserts and sandy plains of central and western Australia, where they feed almost exclusively on ants. Their mouths have evolved to be specific to that purpose, to the point where
  
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• 'This is a very, very tough time': Malcolm Turnbull on the Hazelwood power station closure – video

  03-11-2016 03:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Malcolm Turnbull speaks to the media after the announcement that up to 1,000 jobs will be lost with the closure of the coal-fired Hazelwood power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe valley. At an event at the Sydney children’s hospital in Randwick, the prime minister says the government established a ministerial task group ‘some time ago’ to ensure support for the community in the event of a closure Continue reading...
  
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• Weaker dollar lifts oil prices from five-week low

  03-11-2016 02:58
  By Mark Tay SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Crude oil prices rose on Thursday as a weaker U.S. dollar buoyed sentiment in the market, lifting prices from five-week lows. Brent crude was trading up 55 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $47.41 a barrel by 0129 GMT after touching a five-week low at $46.46 in the previous session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 50 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $45.84 per barrel. The U.S. dollar index slipped for a third session in a row on Thursday and was down 0.09 perce
  
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• Hazelwood coal power station to close with loss of up to 1,000 jobs

  03-11-2016 01:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Workers told of closure at Thursday morning meeting in Victoria, ending months of uncertainty Up to 1,000 jobs are to go after staff at Hazelwood power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley were told in a meeting on Thursday that the coal-fired station will close on 31 March. Continue reading...
  
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• Wearing lifejackets on trawlers should be law, marine investigators say

  03-11-2016 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Legislation needed because lifejackets are not being worn despite campaign issuing free ones, says MAIB after spate of deathsMarine investigators are calling for the wearing of lifejackets to be a legal requirement on commercial trawlers after a spate of deaths at sea.The Marine Accident Investigation Branchtook the unusual step of recommending legislation as it released reports into four of the nine commercial fishing deaths so far this year.Continue reading...
  
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