Environment news

• Honey, I'm home: Melbourne buzzes as Courtney Barnett plays gig for native bees

  05-12-2016 23:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Singer-songwriter and her partner Jen Cloher raise money to help revitalise habitat of Australia’s blue-banded bee “My name is Courtney and I live around the corner,” says Courtney Barnett, but we know this already. It’s Saturday afternoon and the global rockstar is performing with her partner, the singer-songwriter Jen Cloher, at Melbourne’s Northcote Social Club. She is back on her home turf and she’s here to help the blue-banded bee. Yes, an actual bee.Cont
  
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• How Norse words survived the northern weather

  05-12-2016 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Vikings who settled in the north of England have handed down more than their names for landscape featuresThirty years ago farmers in the Yorkshire Dales never wore gloves even when the temperature was well below zero and there was snow on the ground. Asked if their hands felt cold one replied: “Aye a little, but only twice a day. “I feel it first thing in the morning when I first go out, but after a few minutes my fingers go numb, like, and then I don’t feel them again until I
  
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• Game Changer for Organic Solar Cells

  05-12-2016 21:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  With a new technique for manufacturing single-layer organic polymer solar cells, scientists at UC Santa Barbara and three other universities might very well move organic photovoltaics into a whole new generation of wearable devices and enable small-scale distributed power generation.The simple doping solution-based process involves briefly immersing organic semiconductor films in a solution at room temperature. This technique, which could replace a more complex approach that requires vacuum proc
  
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• Pet sounds: why birds have much in common with humans

  05-12-2016 20:20 via theguardian.com
  
  An expert on Australian native species says birds can have empathy, grieve after the death of a partner and form long-term friendshipsIt is generally quite well-known that kookaburras live in family groups: a bonded male and female, plus a retainer of their offspring. Numbers matter in kookaburra society because a neighbouring tribe may have its eye firmly on the expansion of territory – and may invade a smaller group.This means the injury and eventual death of one bird – most crucia
  
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• Opposition to public funding for Adani rail link outweighs support, poll finds

  05-12-2016 20:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Poll commissioned by the Australia Institute finds 41% oppose funding the link between the coalmine and port in north Queensland while 33% support itMore Australians oppose the idea of funding infrastructure for the Carmichael coalmine than support it, although the reverse is true in Queensland, a new poll has found.The Research Now poll commissioned by the Australia Institute, released on Tuesday, found that 41% opposed funding construction of infrastructure to help the Adani coalmine, compared
  
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• Experts warn against axing green army without restoring Landcare funding

  05-12-2016 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Academic decries what he describes as yet another bait-and-switch to reduce overall spending on conservation in AustraliaScrapping Australia’s “green army” without restoring Landcare funding to pre-2014 levels would further weaken community conservation efforts, experts have said.The Turnbull government is reportedly set to abolish the derided environmental program – to the dismay of its creator and greatest champion, the former prime minister Tony Abbott. Continue readin
  
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• Australia's energy transmission industry calls for carbon trading

  05-12-2016 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Emissions intensity scheme is the least costly way of reducing greenhouse gases, Energy Networks Australia and Csiro say Australia’s electricity and gas transmission industry is calling on the Turnbull government to implement a form of carbon trading in the national electricity market by 2022 and review the scope for economy-wide carbon pricing by 2027.Energy Networks Australia warns in a new report examining how to achieve zero net carbon emissions by 2050 that policy stability and regula
  
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• First Detection of Ammonia in the Upper Troposphere

  05-12-2016 19:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  Population is growing, climate is warming – hence, emission of ammonia (NH3) trace gas from e.g. agriculture will increase worldwide. Recently, scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) for the first time detected NH3 in the upper troposphere. Together with researchers from Colorado/USA and Mexico, they analyzed satellite measurements by the MIPAS infrared spectrometer and found increased amounts of NH3 between 12 and 15 km height in the area of the Asian monsoon. This suggests
  
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• Why is a banned pesticide that harms bees actually being used more? | Patrick Barkham

  05-12-2016 19:42 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists fear that neonicotinoid manufacturers are copying tobacco industry tactics in a bid to end the moratorium on this devastating chemicalHalfway through a video of a speech by the biologist Professor Dave Goulson there is an abrupt loss of sound. Goulson, who has devoted his working life to highlighting the catastrophic decline of bees, is giving a talk to hundreds gathered at the National Honey Show in 2015. Strangely, his words are silenced for 20 seconds of the video uploaded by the s
  
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• Qaeda militants blow up Yemen gas export pipeline - local officials

  05-12-2016 19:41
  Al Qaeda militants blew up Yemen's only gas export pipeline on Monday, local officials said, in a further blow to a moribund but vital piece of infrastructure for an impoverished country battered by 20 months of war. The explosion occurred in the remote desert area of al-Uqla in the southern province of Shabwa, the officials said, and severed the link between Yemen's gas-producing Marib region and the export terminal of Balhaf on the Arabian Sea. Oil and gas once accounted for most of Yemen's st
  
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• The naming of parts from an Ikea flatpack? | Letters

  05-12-2016 19:32 via theguardian.com
  
  School data collection | Phobia feature photos | Uses for unwanted Guardian sections | Bolt or set screw?I assured several worried parents that the collection of pupil nationality data was simply for Department for Education research purposes. It wasn’t. The mandatory data request was not fully explained to schools. It now appears to have been a murky compromise with a Home Office plan to tackle illegal immigration (May wanted to ‘deprioritise’ school places for children o
  
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• Big brands call on UK Government to 'stop the solar tax hike'

  05-12-2016 18:34
  
  More than 160 leading green businesses including Sainsbury's, Ikea and Kingfisher have today (5 December) called upon Chancellor Philip Hammond to scrap scheduled tax increases on solar PV.
  
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• Cement made from steel production by-product can lead to a huge CO2 reduction

  05-12-2016 17:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  Steel production generates some hundred million tons of steel slag worldwide each year. This giant mountain of leftovers is largely dumped. TU/e professor of building materials, Jos Brouwers, will be working with industrial partners to investigate whether he can make cement out of it. If he succeeds, more CO2 emissions can be cut than is produced yearly by all the traffic in the Netherlands.Steel slag is produced by the conversion of raw iron into steel – around 125 million tons of it per
  
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• Oil hits 16-month high in buying rush after OPEC agreement

  05-12-2016 17:52
  By Jessica Resnick-Ault NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude rose above $55 (43.28 pound) a barrel to hit a 16-month high on Monday as rising prospects of a tightening market after last week's OPEC landmark deal to cut production has given speculators impetus to increase bets on higher prices. Monday's gains take the rally since the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' agreement was struck on Wednesday to 19 percent for Brent and 16 percent for U.S. crude. "OPEC sentiment continues to suppor
  
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• Polar sea ice the size of India vanishes in record heat

  05-12-2016 17:36
  By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Sea ice off Antarctica and in the Arctic is at record lows for this time of year after declining by twice the size of Alaska in a sign of rising global temperatures, climate scientists say. Against a trend of global warming and a steady retreat of ice at earth's northern tip, ice floating on the Southern Ocean off Antarctica has tended to expand in recent years. "There are some really crazy things going on," said Mark Serreze, director
  
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• Ahead of deal to cut, OPEC oil output hits record high - Reuters survey

  05-12-2016 17:27
  By Alex Lawler LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC's oil output set another record high in November ahead of a deal to cut production, a Reuters survey found on Monday, helped by higher Iraqi exports and extra barrels from two nations exempted from cutting supply - Nigeria and Libya. Supply from OPEC increased to 34.19 million barrels per day (bpd) in November from 33.82 million bpd in October, according to the survey based on shipping data and information from industry sources. "OPEC's decision to cut prod
  
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• Extreme downpours could increase fivefold across parts of the U.S.

  05-12-2016 17:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  At century's end, the number of summertime storms that produce extreme downpours could increase by more than 400 percent across parts of the United States — including sections of the Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast, and the Southwest — according to a new study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).The study, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, also finds that the intensity of individual extreme rainfall events could increase by as much
  
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• Scottish fossils tell story of first life on land

  05-12-2016 17:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Fossils of possibly the earliest backboned four-legged animals to walk have been found in Scotland.
  
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• 'Human swan' completes three-month journey – video

  05-12-2016 16:39 via theguardian.com
  
  Sacha Dench, known as the ‘human swan’ completes her three-month-long paramotor journey from Russia to the UK on Monday. Dench made the record breaking 4,500 mile trip to raise awareness for the dwindling Bewick swan population. The journey followed the migratory path the swans undertake each year. The final leg of the trip involved crossing the Channel‘Human swan’ crosses Channel on her epic 4,500-mile migration
  Continue reading...
  
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• Bodybuilder Injects Coconut Oil, Damages Arm Muscle

  05-12-2016 16:26
  
  Instead of just lifting weights, an amateur bodybuilder in the United Kingdom tried to plump up his arm muscles and by injecting them with coconut oil, according to a new report of the case. But he wound up developing cysts inside his arm muscles from the oil, and because he also used steroids, he ruptured his triceps and needed surgery, the report said. An ultrasound revealed a rupture in the tendon that connects the triceps muscle (in the upper arm) to the bone near the elbow.
  
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• Ancient shellfish used for purple dye vanishes from eastern Med

  05-12-2016 16:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Red-mouthed rock shell was one of main sources of Tyrian purple and study blames its collapse on rising sea temperaturesThe shellfish that was one of the main sources of Tyrian purple – one of the most storied and valuable trading products in the ancient world – has disappeared from the eastern Mediterranean coast, amid warnings of an ongoing multi-species collapse blamed on global rises in sea temperatures.Described by Aristotle and Pliny among other ancient writers, Tyrian purple o
  
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• Robot aircraft take to British skies

  05-12-2016 16:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Robot aircraft are to be tested in UK airspace to help refine systems that control autonomous planes.
  
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• Underwater Stone Age Site Was Fisherman's Paradise

  05-12-2016 15:56
  
  A now-submerged Stone Age settlement has been mapped in the Baltic Sea, revealing how its ancient inhabitants lived along what was once a lagoon on the coast of Sweden some 9,000 years ago. The exceptionally well-preserved site was discovered about seven years ago, after divers came upon what are now considered to be the oldest stationary fish traps in northern Europe. Lead researcher Anton Hansson, a doctoral student in Quaternary geology at Lund University, and his colleagues reconstructed wha
  
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• BP acquires Repsol's stake in Tangguh LNG project

  05-12-2016 15:55
  British oil company BP has acquired Spanish group Repsol's 3.06 percent stake in the Tangguh liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Indonesia for $313 million (246.12 pound), a BP spokesman said on Monday. In June BP gave the go-ahead for the $8 billion expansion of Tangguh's third LNG train, one of only a handful of major investment decisions in the sector this year as companies trim spending in response to a protracted slump in oil prices. Repsol, which announced the deal on Friday evening, sa
  
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• Standing Rock is a modern-day Indian war. This time Indians are winning | Martin Lukacs

  05-12-2016 15:35 via theguardian.com
  
  A historic growing movement for Indigenous rights is a key to protecting land and water and preventing climate chaosAs Indigenous peoples faced off against armed police and tanks near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Dakota, theirs wasn’t just a battle over a pipeline. It was a battle over a story that could define the future of America.
  The Obama administration’s decision yesterday to refuse the Dakota Access pipeline permission to complete its construction has now shaken up t
  
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• Corporate growth still driving deforestation, CDP shows

  05-12-2016 14:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Although progress is being made, up to US $906bn of company turnover is still tied to global deforestation, an assessment suggests.
  
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• Google's satellite timelapses show the inconvenient truth about our planet

  05-12-2016 14:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Google’s new Timelapse project allows you to see how anywhere in the world has changed in the last 32 years; from evaporating lakes to exploding cities, it’s a document of recklessnessThe image of the Earth from space is so seared into human consciousness that it is hard to conceive what it was like to live without the picture of our planet as a blue sphere that we all now carry in our minds.The first photographs of the Earth’s surface seen from 100 miles were taken in 1947. By
  
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• Tim Peake spacecraft will arrive in UK in 2017

  05-12-2016 14:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The UK has bought the capsule which sent Tim Peake into space and returned him to Earth.
  
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• Stock exchanges poised to introduce sustainability reporting standards

  05-12-2016 14:15
  
  The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is among 21 of the world's stock exchanges that look set to introduce sustainability reporting standards before the end of 2016, according to experts.
  
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• Trophy hunting could help conserve lions, says Cecil the lion scientist

  05-12-2016 14:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Oxford University professor who studied Cecil says strictly regulated hunting could help stop destruction of lion habitatsTrophy hunting could help conserve lions, according to the Oxford University scientist who had studied Cecil the lion for years before the animal was killed by an American dentist.
  A new report by Prof David MacDonald for UK ministers concluded that strictly regulated hunting of lions could provide a financial incentive to protect areas of wild lion habitat from being destroy
  
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• Google timelapse shows changing earth – video

  05-12-2016 13:39 via theguardian.com
  
  Google Earth timelapse show how the earth has changed over 32 years. A series of videos highlight the changing faces of urban and natural environments across the globe. Google combined over 5 million satellite images acquired over the past three decades by five different satellites to create the timelapsesGoogle’s satellite timelapses show the inconvenient truth about our planetContinue reading...
  
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• Evolving Earth captured by Google timelapse – video

  05-12-2016 13:39 via theguardian.com
  
  Google Earth shows how the planet has changed over the last 32 years. A series of videos highlight the evolving faces of urban and natural environments across the globe. Google combined over 5 million images acquired by five different satellites to create the timelapse Continue reading...
  
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• 'Human swan' crosses Channel on her epic 4,500-mile migration

  05-12-2016 13:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Sacha Dench is first woman to cross the Channel in a motorised paraglider, as part of her journey following migrating birds from Russia to Britain The conservationist and “human swan” Sacha Dench has become the first woman to cross the English Channel in a motorised paraglider during her epic 4,500-mile journey following migrating birds from the Russian tundra to Britain.
  The 41-year-old made history crossing the Channel on her paramotor after an eventful 10-week flight accompanying
  
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• Sea Shepherd activists set sail for Antarctic to battle Japanese whalers

  05-12-2016 12:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Fast new patrol vessel built with Dutch, British and Swedish lottery funds aims to challenge Japan’s defiance of international court ruling on whaling Two ships have left Australia bound for the freezing Southern Ocean to confront the Japanese whaling fleet in an annual high-seas battle, the environmental activist group Sea Shepherd has said.The organisation’s flagship, Steve Irwin, departed for Antarctic waters on Monday along with a fast new patrol vessel, Ocean Warrior, built with
  
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• Last winter's flooding 'most extreme on record' in UK

  05-12-2016 12:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Flooding across parts of the UK last winter was the most extreme on record, experts say.
  
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• Energy efficiency: 'Champions and dunces' exist in every industry

  05-12-2016 12:03
  
  The world's largest listed companies could save 1.4 billion tonnes of CO2 - the equivalent of Japan's annual carbon emissions - by closing the gap between the worst and best-performing businesses on energy efficiency, a major new report has revealed.
  
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• Fake news tries to blame human-caused global warming on El Niño | Dana Nuccitelli

  05-12-2016 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate scientists and real science journalists pushed back, holding the post-truth crowd accountable
  Human carbon pollution is heating the Earth incredibly fast. On top of that long-term human-caused global warming trend, there are fluctuations caused by various natural factors. One of these is the El Niño/La Niña cycle. The combination of human-caused warming and a strong El Niño event are on the verge of causing an unprecedented three consecutive record-breaking hot years
  
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• Britain's largest grid-scale battery 'could transform the energy grid'

  05-12-2016 11:41
  
  An £18.4m grid-scale battery system in Bedfordshire has proved the technical and commercial viability of energy storage in Britain following an extensive two-year trial, according to the facility's operator.
  
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• Mitsui buys 20 percent stake in Shell's offshore oil fields in Gulf

  05-12-2016 11:25
  Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co said on Monday it has agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in four blocks in the U.S. offshore oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico from Royal Dutch Shell Plc for an undisclosed amount. The move follows Mitsui's other investment decisions earlier this year including co-development of the Greater Enfield oil reserves off Western Australia and an $8 billion (6.29 billion pound) expansion of the Tangguh liquefied natural gas project in Indonesia which is led b
  
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• Last winter's floods 'most extreme on record in UK', says study

  05-12-2016 11:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Highest ever rainfall recorded in UK was in December 2015 at Honister Pass in Lake District with 341.4mm falling in 24 hoursAn appraisal of the winter floods of 2015-2016, published on the first anniversary of Storm Desmond, reveals it ranks alongside the devastating flooding of March 1947 as the largest event of at least the last century.
  November 2015 to January 2016 was the wettest three-month period in records dating back to 1910, while December was both the wettest and, on average, the warm
  
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• Oil tops $55 for first time in 16 months as OPEC deal fuels buying

  05-12-2016 10:57
  By Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - Brent crude oil prices rose above $55 a barrel on Monday, trading at a fresh 16-month high, as optimism spread about the prospect of a tightening market after OPEC members agreed on a landmark deal to cut production last week. Brent crude oil futures , the global benchmark used to trade oil, soared to its highest since July 6, 2015 to $55.20 (42.85 pound) a barrel. WTI crude oil traded up 54 cents, or 1 percent, at $52.22 a barrel.
  
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• Australia considers charging power generators for pollution

  05-12-2016 10:34
  CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia will consider making electrical power companies pay for greenhouse gas pollution they create, three years after the government scrapped the national carbon tax, a Cabinet minister said Monday.
  
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• Sadiq Khan to spend £770m on London cycling initiatives

  05-12-2016 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Mayor’s proposed investment gets near levels seen in cycle-friendly nations such as Netherlands and DenmarkLondon’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has promised to spend £770m on cycling initiatives over the course of his term, saying he wants to make riding a bike the “safe and obvious” transport choice for all Londoners.Following criticism that Khan has not been as bold as his predecessor, Boris Johnson, in committing to new bike routes, and amid increasing worries about air q
  
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• Girls turn poo to clean power in Cameroon biogas push

  05-12-2016 09:48
  By Elias Ntungwe Ngalame BUEA, Cameroon (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - An initiative by youth organisations in Cameroon to turn human waste into biogas is reducing pollution and providing cheap, renewable energy to the growing populations of the university towns of Buea and Bamenda. The organisation says its efforts are spurring the use of clean energy in homes and secondary schools where grid electrical power is non-existent or unreliable and alternative sources of energy such as gas cylinders
  
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• George Christensen backs $1bn federal loan for Adani railway line

  05-12-2016 09:36 via theguardian.com
  
  But an analyst warns that it is not clear which part of the sprawling Indian conglomerate would receive the moneyThe conservative backbencher George Christensen has backed the idea of the controversial mining company Adani getting a $1bn loan from the Turnbull government for a rail line in his Queensland electorate.But an analyst has warned the government would have to conduct strict due diligence to ensure the loan was not funnelled through the Cayman Islands tax haven. Continue reading...
  
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• Mexico deep water oil push taps data that solved dinosaur riddle

  05-12-2016 09:16
  By David Alire Garcia MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A long-awaited auction of Mexico's untapped deep water oil fields on Monday has been fuelled by a nearly $3 billion boom in geological data mapping almost inaccessible deposits to open up what the industry sees as the world's "last great proven frontier." The data rush of the past two years by many top geophysical companies has sparked some of the biggest imaging projects ever for technology also used to hunt for the ruins of ancient civilizations an
  
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• Dakota Access pipeline protesters celebrate after permit denied – video

  05-12-2016 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Protesters at Standing Rock respond to news that the Army Corps of Engineers will not grant the permit for the Dakota Access pipeline to drill under the Missouri river. Environmental activists gathered to celebrate their win after a months long campaign to block the pipelineStanding Rock: US denies key permit for Dakota Access pipeline, in win for tribeContinue reading...
  
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• Cadbury alters Fairtrade partnership in an effort to boost sustainable cocoa sourcing

  05-12-2016 09:00
  
  British confectionary giant Cadbury is extending its Cocoa Life sustainability initiative across all of its chocolate products in UK and Ireland by 2019, and will utilise the expertise of Fairtrade as a key partner in the programme.
  
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• UK homebuilders failing to deal with waste, report finds

  05-12-2016 08:20
  
  The overwhelming majority of UK homebuilding firms have increased waste generation over the last year, according to a report assessing the sustainability performances of the UK's largest property developers.
  
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