Environment news

• Japan ISS Kounotori: Spacecraft launched to try to clear space junk

  09-12-2016 23:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Japan launches a cargo ship equipped with a half-mile long magnetic tether to clear space junk.
  
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• Japan tests innovative magnetic tether for slowing space junk

  09-12-2016 23:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Japan launches a cargo ship carrying a space junk collector designed to gather debris in space.
  
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• Wind turbines may have beneficial effects for crops

  09-12-2016 23:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  A multi-year study led by an Iowa State University scientist suggests the turbines commonly used in the state to capture wind energy may have a positive effect on crops.Gene Takle, a Distinguished Professor of agronomy and geological and atmospheric sciences, said tall wind turbines disbursed throughout a field create air turbulence that may help plants by affecting variables such as temperature and carbon dioxide concentrations.
  
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• Turnbull was right in 2009: ruling out emissions trading is 'bullshit' | Lenore Taylor

  09-12-2016 23:04 via theguardian.com
  
  With his about-face on carbon pricing, the PM has heeded the deniers and chosen not to end the stupid barren climate warsMalcolm Turnbull’s climate policy stance is “bullshit” according to his own searing assessment when Tony Abbott advanced similar ideas. That was back in the days when Turnbull let facts interfere with his decisions. In 2009, just after he was dumped from the Liberal leadership, Turnbull wrote a blog in which he provided some frank and forceful thoughts about
  
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• Oil drilling advocate to be Trump pick for Interior Department

  09-12-2016 22:16
  By Ginger Gibson and Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will pick U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a climate-change sceptic and an advocate for expanded oil and gas development, to run the Interior Department, a Trump aide said on Friday. The appointment could mean easier access for industry to more than a quarter of America's territory, ranging from national parks to tribal lands stretching from the Arctic to the Gulf of Mexico, where energy co
  
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• U.S.-led warplanes destroy fleet of Islamic State oil tankers in Syria

  09-12-2016 22:03
  By Yeganeh Torbati and Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition planes destroyed 168 Islamic State oil tanker trucks in Syria, the coalition said on Friday, in the largest strike of its kind and the latest instance of what U.S. officials say has been a successful effort to starve the militant group of revenues. The air strikes targeted the truck fleet near Palmyra, Syria on Thursday, a coalition statement said. The strikes are part of a campaign by the U.S.-led coalition to targe
  
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• Oil traders prepare flotilla to ship U.S. exports to Asia

  09-12-2016 21:42
  By Chen Aizhu and Catherine Ngai BEIJING/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil traders and major producers are lining up a flotilla of carriers to ship more U.S. crude to Asia in December than in nearly two decades as higher prices, supported by OPEC's proposed supply cuts, offer a rare opportunity to boost sales to the region. A 40-year U.S. ban on crude exports was lifted in 2015 but only a few cargoes have shipped during a global glut in supply. As peak winter demand kicks in, the difference between bench
  
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• Russia expects non-OPEC to fully contribute to production cuts

  09-12-2016 21:39
  Russia's energy minister said on Friday he expected non-OPEC oil producers to fully contribute to production cuts agreed earlier with OPEC. "I look with optimism at tomorrow's event," Alexander Novak said ahead of a meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers on Saturday. "I think that we will agree and we must agree," he said adding he was confident non-OPEC producers would contribute 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of cuts alongside OPEC's production cut of 1.2 million bpd.
  
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• Oil edges up about 1 percent on optimism over non-OPEC output cuts

  09-12-2016 21:26
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose about 1 percent on Friday on hopes that non-OPEC producers meeting in Vienna over the weekend would agree to output restrictions to go along with the limits OPEC announced last week to curb a glut of oil. Both Brent and U.S crude futures, however, notched their first weekly loss in four weeks. A strong U.S. ...
  
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• Notes from Mars 160: The Space Architecture of Yusuke Murakami

  09-12-2016 20:00
  The Mars Society is conducting the ambitious two-phase Mars 160 Twin Desert-Arctic Analogue mission to study how seven crewmembers could live, work and perform science on a true mission to Mars. Mars 160 crewmember Annalea Beattie is chronicling the mission, which will spend 80 days at the Mars Desert Research Station in the southern Utah desert before venturing far north to Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island, Canada in summer 2017. Here's her latest dispatch from the mi
  
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• Saudis order oil cuts to U.S., Europe before non-OPEC talks

  09-12-2016 19:46
  By Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler VIENNA (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has told its U.S. and European customers it will reduce oil deliveries from January as Russia signalled that a commitment from non-OPEC producers to join OPEC's output limits still faced challenges. Saudi Arabia told the customers about lower supplies in line with the output reduction agreed by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week, according to a Gulf oil industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy. "
  
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• New battery power-storage plants scheduled to keep UK lights on

  09-12-2016 19:24 via theguardian.com
  
  But blow for government’s ‘dash for gas’ plans as large plants fail to win subsidies to generate backup powerA series of new battery power-storage plants and two small new gas power stations will be built in the UK following the award of subsidies designed to bolster energy supply and head off the threat of shortages.But government hopes of an ambitious “dash for gas” were dealt another blow after this week’s auction of subsidies to build backup capacity for B
  
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• Anti-fracking activist spared jail after refusing to pay court £55,000

  09-12-2016 19:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Tina Louise Rothery – part of a protest group known as the Nanas – staged a three-week occupation of a field near BlackpoolAn anti-fracking campaigner has been spared jail after she refused to pay more than £55,000 of legal fees to the oil and gas firm Cuadrilla.
  Tina Louise Rothery, 54, had been ordered to pay £55,342 of fees to the British company and a group of landowners, or face a 14-day prison sentence, after she sought to stop an injunction that would prevent prote
  
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• National Geographic nature photographer of the year 2016 – in pictures

  09-12-2016 19:05 via theguardian.com
  
  The annual National Geographic nature photographer of the year attracts thousands of entries from across the globe. Here’s a selection of the winning images Continue reading...
  
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• Nature laws victory, giraffes and Google – green news roundup

  09-12-2016 17:16 via theguardian.com
  
  The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...
  
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• Oil up about 1 percent on optimism over non-OPEC output cuts

  09-12-2016 17:08
  By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose about 1 percent on Friday, trading within a narrow range, on hopes that non-OPEC producers meeting in Vienna over the weekend would agree to cut output to bolster the group's own agreement to limit production. Saudi Arabia and Iraq plan to supply full contracted volumes of crude to Asia in January, in an effort to retain market share in Asia, but the former ordered supply cuts to U.S. and European buyers.
  
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• Defra's 'unambitious' aluminium recycling targets challenged

  09-12-2016 16:51
  
  The Government's new packaging recycling business targets for 2018-20 do not reflect the sector's high ambitions to maximise recovery and recycling of this valuable material, according to the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro).
  
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• Indigenous land rights key to stopping deforestation in Central America

  09-12-2016 16:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Without their traditional land managers, conservation reserves in Central America are left vulnerable to corporate interests, report finds. Climate Home reportsConservation reserves in Central America have shut indigenous peoples off from their traditional lands and driven deforestation, community leaders have told Climate Home.Since revolution in the region started to wind down in the 1980s, there has been an internationally celebrated trend to create large conservation areas. Hundreds of thous
  
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• Russia to hold additional talks before OPEC, non-OPEC meeting - sources

  09-12-2016 16:36
  By Katya Golubkova MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to hold additional talks on Friday with some OPEC and non-OPEC nations to discuss unresolved issues related to a planned cut in oil output ahead of a wider meeting the following day in Vienna, two Russian sources told Reuters. Russia has committed to reducing its output by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of 2017 in an effort to boost oil prices. Other non-OPEC countries are being urged to cut by a similar amount in total.
  
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• Is Planet Earth II nature's answer to Strictly?

  09-12-2016 15:54 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Planet Earth filmmakers talk dancing flamingos and bears
  
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• Trapdoor spiders disappearing from Australian landscape

  09-12-2016 15:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  Recent surveys by Australian scientists have identified an apparent significant decline in the numbers of trapdoor spiders across southern Australia. 
  
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• Five truly remarkable moments captured on film in Planet Earth II

  09-12-2016 15:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Film crews on the BBC series used the latest technology to photograph seldom seen behaviours of animals in the wildSix weeks ago, barely anyone had heard of sea-faring iguanas. Since then, many tens of millions of people worldwide have watched and cheered as the hatchling iguanas scrambled to escape the snakes – and just a few of them made it.Continue reading...
  
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• Africa is being choked. But corporations leave their grime on us all | Lola Okolosie

  09-12-2016 14:41 via theguardian.com
  
  The filthy practice of exporting highly polluting fuel to Africa is symbolic of big business the world over: where profit is king, human life becomes trivialDense, dirty air laced with grease best describes the atmosphere of most Lagos streets. Drive from one corner of this great west African city to another and in no time you will find surfaces lightly dusted, like a soft sprinkling of icing on cakes. Under the half moons of fingernails, thick grime settles. Related: Dirty diesel from European
  
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• ECB's quantitative easing programme investing billions in fossil fuels

  09-12-2016 14:36 via theguardian.com
  
  EU emissions pledge could be undermined by bank’s investments in oil, gas and auto industries, new analysis showsThe European Central Bank’s (ECB) quantitative easing programme is systematically investing billions of euros in the oil, gas and auto industries, according to a new analysisThe ECB has already purchased €46bn (£39bn) of corporate bonds since last June in a bid to boost flagging eurozone growth rates, a figure that some analysts expect to rise to €125bn by
  
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• EPA's National Lakes Assessment Finds Nutrient Pollution is Widespread in Lakes

  09-12-2016 14:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the results of a national assessment showing that nutrient pollution is widespread in the nation’s lakes, with 4 in 10 lakes suffering from too much nitrogen and phosphorus.
  
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• Oil makes shaky gains on optimism over non-OPEC output cuts

  09-12-2016 14:23
  By Libby George LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices were edging higher for a second session on Friday on hopes that non-OPEC producers meeting in Vienna would agree to cut output to bolster the group's own agreement to limit production. On Saturday, oil ministers from OPEC countries will meet non-OPEC producers in Vienna to seek help in curbing a global glut. Russia has said it would cut 300,000 barrels per day, meaning other non-OPEC producers combined would need to pledge the same amount to lower ou
  
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• 100 million year old dinosaur tail is discovered

  09-12-2016 14:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists have found a 100 million year old dinosaur tail trapped in amber.
  
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• Rare tiny creatures found in loch near Kinross

  09-12-2016 13:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Tiny crustaceans previously recorded at two locations in the British Isles are found in a loch near Kinross.
  
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• Against the Tide: A Fish Adapts Quickly to Lethal Levels of Pollution

  09-12-2016 13:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  Evolution is working hard to rescue some urban fish from a lethal, human-altered environment, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, and published Dec. 9 in the journal Science. While environmental change is outpacing the rate of evolution for many other species, Atlantic killifish living in four polluted East Coast estuaries turn out to be remarkably resilient. These fish have adapted to levels of highly toxic industrial pollutants that would normally ki
  
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• UK agrees to new EU air pollution laws, raising 'awkward' Brexit questions

  09-12-2016 13:04
  
  The UK has agreed to adopt new European Union (EU) legislation on air quality, which sets stricter national limits for the emission of some of the most dangerous air pollutants.
  
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• Supermarkets urged to prevent high-risk salmon sourcing

  09-12-2016 12:45
  
  Supermarket giants Sainsbury's and the Co-op have been called upon by a conservationist group to stop putting Scottish farmed fish on their shelves to maintain sustainable sourcing credentials.
  
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• Oil edges higher on optimism over non-OPEC output cuts

  09-12-2016 11:55
  By Libby George LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher for a second consecutive session on Friday on hopes that non-OPEC producers meeting in Vienna would agree to cut output to bolster the group's own agreement to limit production. On Saturday, oil ministers from OPEC countries will meet non-OPEC producers in Vienna to seek help in curbing a global glut. Russia has said it would cut 300,000 barrels per day, meaning other non-OPEC producers combined would need to pledge the same amount to lo
  
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• The lakes of the world are disappearing – in pictures

  09-12-2016 11:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate change and human activity are threatening the existence of some of the world’s largest lakes. These photographs document dramatic changes to the landscape in Bolivia, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union , China and west Africa Continue reading...
  
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• Russia to hold additional talks on Friday head of Vienna December 10 meeting - source

  09-12-2016 09:52
  Russia plans to hold additional talks on Friday with some OPEC and non-OPEC nations to discuss unresolved issues around a planned output cut ahead of a wider meeting on Saturday in Vienna, a Russian government source told Reuters on Friday. "Russia sees risks ahead of the deal if questions are not resolved," the source said. "One hundred percent compliance is critical for the deal... It's essential for non-OPEC to have a responsible approach towards the deal." The source said that there were als
  
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• Over 200 years of deadly London air: smogs, fogs, and pea soupers | Vanessa Heggie

  09-12-2016 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  60 years after the Clean Air Act, Londoners still suffer from air pollution. What can we can learn from two centuries of campaigns against city smog?
  On 9 December 1952 the Great Smog officially ended – for five days a thick layer of air pollution, mostly caused by coal fires, had covered London and caused the deaths of thousands of residents. 64 years later the London Mayor has committed £875 million to tackle the problem. This week the Royal Society of Biology hosted an event on ai
  
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• Alan Finkel warns investment has stalled over climate policy uncertainty

  09-12-2016 08:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Australia’s chief scientist vows to ‘thoroughly analyse all options’ for energy market despite row over emissions tradingAustralia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, has tried to stay out of the fresh political row over emissions trading but says his review of the energy market will continue to analyse all the options to ensure future security of power supply and compliance with climate obligations.
  Finkel’s comments follow a briefing he gave on Friday to the prime min
  
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• Great Barrier Reef not likely to survive if warming trend continues, says report

  09-12-2016 07:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Report projects by 2050 more than 98% of coral reefs will be afflicted by ‘bleaching-level thermal stress’ each yearThe Great Barrier Reef will not survive coral bleaching if current sea temperature trends continue, according to a new report charting increases over the past three decades which blames manmade climate change for the problem.The study found thermal stress to coral reef areas was three times more likely when its investigation finished in 2012 compared with when it began
  
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• Washington to check if Russia-Qatar oil deal violates sanctions

  09-12-2016 07:32
  The U.S. government is to check if sanctions where violated when Russia this week struck a deal to sell a stake in oil producer Rosneft to a consortium of Qatar's sovereign fund and commodities trader Glencore , the White House said. "The experts at the Department of Treasury that are responsible for constructing and enforcing the sanctions regime will carefully look at a transaction like this," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on Thursday.
  
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• Russia says continues investigation in case of ex-minister Ulyukayev

  09-12-2016 07:22
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Investigative Committee is continuing "active investigative activity" into the case of ex-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev, the committee said on Friday. Ulyukayev was dismissed and put under house arrest in November over allegations he extorted a $2 million (1.59 million pounds) bribe from top oil producer Rosneft. His lawyer says he denies the charges. (writing by Denis Pinchuk; editing by Christian Lowe)
  
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• Black swan becomes black sheep in the mob

  09-12-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Langstone Harbour, Hampshire The black swan shrank back as the mute swans stomped up the mud bank towards us and jostled for a handoutThe tide was out and as I approached the mill outflow I could see a black swan hunkered down on the exposed shingle. Native to Australia, black swans were introduced to Britain in 1791 as ornamental birds in captive wildfowl collections. Due to inevitable escapees and deliberate releases, sightings in the wild are widespread. Now, the number of breeding sites are
  
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• Oil exploration spending may drop further next year -WoodMac

  09-12-2016 06:08
  By Ron Bousso LONDON (Reuters) - Global spending on oil and gas exploration in 2017 could fall below this year's $40 billion, but lower costs mean profitability will increase, consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a report on Friday. Faced with a 30-month-long oil price downturn, oil companies including Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell have slashed spending budgets in recent years, with exploration bearing the brunt. According to Wood Mackenzie, the share of exploration in overall oil and gas prod
  
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• Oil holds gains on hopes for non-OPEC output cuts

  09-12-2016 05:17
  By Osamu Tsukimori TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices were steady on Friday, holding around 2-percent gains from the previous session on optimism that non-OPEC producers might agree to cut output following a cartel agreement to limit production. Russia has so far said it would cut 300,000 barrels per day, meaning other non-OPEC producers combined would need to pledge the same amount to lower output by the 600,000 bpd OPEC wants - half the reduction OPEC is making. "An agreement by non-OPEC members to
  
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• Oil extends gains on hopes for non-OPEC output cuts

  09-12-2016 02:01
  Oil prices extended gains on Friday, buoyed by growing optimism that non-OPEC producers might agree to cut output following a cartel agreement to limit production. Oil producers will meet in Vienna on Saturday to see if non-OPEC countries will cut production to reduce a global supply glut that has pressured prices for more than two years. OPEC has agreed to slash production by 1.2 million bpd in the first half of 2017, a deal that bolstered crude futures despite doubts over whether the amount wa
  
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