Environment news

• Solar cooling systems take heat out of summer’s hottest days

  19-12-2016 23:48 via theguardian.com
  
  A few Australian businesses are exploiting the searing heat of summer to create purpose-designed solar cooling systems whose benefits extend far beyond electricity savings
  As Australia settles in for another long hot summer, the demand for air-conditioning is set to surge. In fact, with the World Meteorological Organisation stating that 2016 is likely to be the hottest year on record, it’s no surprise an estimated 1.6bn new air conditioners are likely to be installed globally by 2050. Powe
  
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• Reasons to put insects on the Christmas menu

  19-12-2016 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Rearing animals for meat is bad for the planet. Insects, on the other hand, are both nutritious and environmentally friendlyIf you’re looking for a novelty Christmas dinner that will help curb greenhouse gases, why not try eating insects? Conventional meat farming produces massive amounts of greenhouse gases, especially from sheep and cattle belching methane – a gas roughly 20 times more powerful as a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide. Add to that other culprits, such as nitrogen
  
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• El Niño fuelled Zika outbreak, new study suggests

  19-12-2016 21:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists at the University of Liverpool have shown that a change in weather patterns, brought on by the 'Godzilla' El Niño of 2015, fuelled the Zika outbreak in South America. The findings were revealed using a new epidemiological model that looked at how climate affects the spread of Zika virus by both of its major vectors, the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus).The model can also be used to predict the risk of future outbreaks, a
  
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• Oil near flat in quiet trade, supply outlook unclear

  19-12-2016 21:24
  By Scott DiSavino NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices were little changed on Monday in quiet pre-Christmas trade as the market waited to see whether U.S. production from shale fields would grow enough to offset planned output cuts by OPEC, Russia and other producers next year. Speculators raised their holdings of Brent crude oil futures to a record high last week.
  
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• Laser helps unlock antimatter secrets

  19-12-2016 20:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists at Cern have found a new way to unlock the secrets of antimatter.
  
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• 'Casper octopod under threat from deep sea mining'

  19-12-2016 20:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A deep sea octopod, dubbed Casper after the film ghost, may be at risk from mining, scientists say.
  
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• Campaigners dismiss Christmas electricity blackout report as 'laughable'

  19-12-2016 19:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Report warning of energy shortage widely discredited after just one MP backs it and it includes misleading claimsA report that warned of Christmas blackouts next year and purported to come from a group of MPs has been discredited after it emerged it was only backed by a single MP and included misleading claims.The British Infrastructure Group (BIG), chaired by Conservative MP Grant Shapps, published a report on Monday that said coal power station closures and a drive for renewable energy had lef
  
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• Mystery of hundreds of thousands of dead fish on Cornish beach solved

  19-12-2016 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  While some blamed bad weather or predation for beaching at Marazion at St Michael’s Mount, the fish were in fact dumped by a trawler for safety reasonsThe mystery of why hundreds of thousands of fish were found washed up on a Cornish beach over the weekend has been solved: they were dumped by a trawler that caught too many sardines in shallow water.After a photographer happened on the huge shoal of dead fish on Marazion at St Michael’s Mount beach, various explanations were offered f
  
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• Iron 'jet stream' detected in Earth's outer core

  19-12-2016 18:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists say Earth's outer core contains a kind of "jet stream" - a fast-flowing river of liquid iron that is surging westwards under Alaska and Siberia.
  
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• Arctic lakes thawing earlier each year

  19-12-2016 18:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists from the University of Southampton have found Arctic lakes, covered with ice during the winter months, are melting earlier each spring.The team, who monitored 13,300 lakes using satellite imagery, have shown that on average ice is breaking up one day earlier per year, based on a 14-year period between 2000 and 2013. Their findings are published in the Nature journal 'Scientific Reports'.
  
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• Our trees are now a growth industry | Patrick Barkham

  19-12-2016 18:32 via theguardian.com
  
  From Old Knobbleys to Ding Dongs, the search for Britain’s top tree has put the spotlight on some remarkable examples of our natural worldHe’s charismatic, muscular and simply would not be moved: the star of Saturday night TV was not Ore Oduba or Len Goodman, but the Brimmon oak. As the Strictly Come Dancing final was taking place on the BBC, over on Channel 4, Father Ted actor Ardal O’Hanlon pottered around Britain in search of the remarkable trees shortlisted for the Woo
  
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• The Guardian view on climate change action: don’t delay | Editorial

  19-12-2016 17:51 via theguardian.com
  
  Arctic temperatures have been 20C above normal. The ice cap is shrinking. And Trump and Putin may see it as an advantageTemperatures in the Arctic in the last two months have hit more than 20C above normal for the time of year. Temperatures that unusual in the UK and Europe would produce 45C summers. As a result, sea ice has shrunk to levels that scientists describe as “off the scale”. Mapping the changes to the extent of sea ice over the last 40 years confirms that: on a graph, the
  
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• Prehistoric porridge? First pots for plant cooking found

  19-12-2016 17:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Prehistoric pottery shows plants and grains were cooked as early as 10,000 years ago.
  
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• Southern Water fined record £2m for sewage leak on Kent beaches

  19-12-2016 17:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Thanet council forced to close beaches for nine days due to ‘catastrophic’ leakage and public health concernsSouthern Water has been fined a record £2m for flooding beaches in Kent with raw sewage, leaving them closed to the public for nine days.The Environment Agency called the event “catastrophic”, while the judge at Maidstone crown court said on Monday that Southern Water’s repeat offending was “wholly unacceptable”. The company apologised unres
  
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• Former Brazilian leader Lula to face fifth corruption trial

  19-12-2016 16:52
  Former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will face a fifth corruption trial, a judge ruled on Monday, as charges pile up against the man seen as a front-runner to win the 2018 presidential election. Judge Sergio Moro, who has overseen the bulk of Brazil's biggest graft probe into a long-standing kickback scheme at state-run oil company Petrobras, ruled that Lula, his wife Marisa and seven others will stand trial. The latest case involves the acquisition of land that was to be used for t
  
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• Major companies back draft circular economy business standard

  19-12-2016 16:19
  
  The framework for a circular economy business standard developed by the British Standards Institution (BSI) has received "very positive" feedback from high-profile companies looking to make the transition to a more sustainable and circular business model.
  
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• Alaska indigenous people see culture slipping away as sea ice vanishes

  19-12-2016 16:03 via theguardian.com
  
  In a year almost certain to be history’s hottest, drastic environmental changes are taking a toll on food supply and even language in Arctic communitiesThe extreme warmth of 2016 has changed so much for the people of the Arctic that even their language is becoming unmoored from the conditions in which they now live. The Yupik, an indigenous people of western Alaska, have dozens of words for the vagaries of sea ice, which is not surprising given the crucial role it plays in subsistence hunt
  
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• Arctic ice melt 'already affecting weather patterns where you live right now'

  19-12-2016 15:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Soaring Arctic temperatures ‘strongly linked’ to recent extreme weather events, say scientists at cutting edge of climate change researchThe dramatic melting of Arctic ice is already driving extreme weather that affects hundreds of millions of people across North America, Europe and Asia, leading climate scientists have told the Guardian.
  Severe “snowmageddon” winters are now strongly linked to soaring polar temperatures, say researchers, with deadly summer heatwaves and
  
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• Carbon Trust joins World Bank project to boost clean innovation in emerging countries

  19-12-2016 15:25
  
  Consultancy firm the Carbon Trust has teamed up with the World Bank in support of its new Climate Business Innovation Network (CBIN) to help commercialise clean technologies across developing countries.
  
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• New study sets oxygen-breathing limit for ocean’s hardiest organisms

  19-12-2016 15:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  Around the world, wide swaths of open ocean are nearly depleted of oxygen. Not quite dead zones, they are “oxygen minimum zones,” where a confluence of natural processes has led to extremely low concentrations of oxygen.Only the hardiest of organisms can survive in such severe conditions, and now MIT oceanographers have found that these tough little life-forms — mostly bacteria — have a surprisingly low limit to the amount of oxygen they need to breathe.
  
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• Five ways public-private partnerships can build healthier cities

  19-12-2016 14:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Two-thirds of the global population will live in cities by 2050. An expert panel shares their thoughts on solving our greatest urban public health challengesNovo Nordisk built a research partnership with C40, the global mayor’s partnership on climate, to map the co-benefits of climate and health. For example, city bikes and bike lines contribute to improving climate (lower particle pollution, lower CO2) and improved health (exercise). Niels Lund, vice president, Novo Nordisk and Cities Cha
  
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• Oil price eases to $55 per barrel on stronger dollar

  19-12-2016 14:51
  By Libby George LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices edged down on Monday due to a renewed dollar rally but were still supported at levels of around $55 per barrel on the back of delays in new Libyan oil exports and expectations of tighter supplies going into 2017. Brent crude futures traded at $54.98 per barrel at 1215 GMT, down 23 cents from their last close and having pared earlier gains as the dollar index rose 0.8 percent on expectations that the Federal Reserve will increase the pace of interest
  
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• Power station shares jump as EC approves wood-burning subsidies

  19-12-2016 14:34 via theguardian.com
  
  A third unit at Drax’s coal power station will switch to biomass after European commission approves government subsidiesThe share price of Britain’s biggest power station operator has jumped to a five-month high after the European commission approved subsidies for its conversion to burn wood pellets instead of coal.Drax was awarded a renewable energy subsidy contract by the government in 2014 to switch the third unit of its coal power station in North Yorkshire over to biomass. That
  
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• European commission approves Drax biomass subsidy

  19-12-2016 14:34 via theguardian.com
  
  A third unit at Drax’s coal power station will switch to burning wood pellets after commission’s state aid investigation approves financial support The share price of Britain’s biggest power station operator has jumped to a five-month high after the European commission approved subsidies for its conversion to burn wood pellets instead of coal.Drax was awarded a renewable energy subsidy contract by the government in 2014 to switch the third unit of its coal power station in Nort
  
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• Kissing cows are to blame for bovine TB – so stop this bloody badger cull | Richard Meyer

  19-12-2016 14:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Science shows cattle are the main cause of bovine TB spread, so badger slaughter makes no sense. Politics and economics are behind this catastrophic policyMore than 10,000 badgers have been killed this autumn in a cull supposedly to combat the disease of bovine TB in cattle. This was the fourth year of culling badgers but, in truth, we have been slaughtering our largest wild carnivore for decades. We have to ask one question: why has this bloody killing gone on for so long? Related: Badger cull
  
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• Sawdust Reinvented Into Super Sponge for Oil Spills

  19-12-2016 13:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  Lowly sawdust, the sawmill waste that’s sometimes tossed onto home garage floors to soak up oil spilled by amateur mechanics, could receive some new-found respect thanks to science. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have chemically modified sawdust to make it exceptionally oil-attracting and buoyant, characteristics that are ideal for cleaning oil spills in the icy, turbulent waters of the Arctic. The nontoxic material absorbs up to
  
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• Europe vehicle industry meeting emissions targets, report claims

  19-12-2016 13:18
  
  Virtually all of the largest car and van manufacturers met European Union (EU) company-specific emissions targets in 2015, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has claimed.
  
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• Notes from Mars 160: Why Field Drawing Is Important to Mars Exploration

  19-12-2016 13:00
  
  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.
  
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• BP splashes out on deals to beef up oil, gas reserves

  19-12-2016 12:59
  BP on Monday agreed to buy stakes in gas-heavy exploration areas off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal from Kosmos , days after announcing the long-awaited renewal of an onshore oil concession in Abu Dhabi. The combined deals are worth around $3.4 billion (2.74 billion pounds) and will add valuable oil and gas reserves to BP's books that have seen resources shrink on the back of divestments it needed to make to pay for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP said on Monday it had agreed to buy a
  
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• Government must prioritise lower energy costs in 2017, say manufacturers

  19-12-2016 12:51
  
  Energy costs and changes to European Union (EU) energy policy are the biggest concerns for British manufacturers, according to new research from npower Business Solutions (nBS).
  
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• Nordic power firms set to apply for Norway-UK subsea link

  19-12-2016 12:42
  By Nerijus Adomaitis OSLO (Reuters) - NorthConnect, owned by three Norwegian power firms and Sweden's Vattenfall [VATN.UL], will seek permission to build a power link from Norway to Britain costing up to 2 billion euros (1.68 billion pounds), its chairman Odd Oeygarden told Reuters. An application will be submitted to Norway's energy market regulator, NVE, and a second one to the oil and energy ministry, either by the end of 2016 or in January, he said. Britain faces an energy supply crunch by t
  
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• Ziggy Stardust snake and Klingon newt among 163 new species discovered in the Mekong – in pictures

  19-12-2016 11:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Other finds in the biodiverse greater Mekong region include a rare banana species from Thailand and a tiny frog from Cambodia and Vietnam Continue reading...
  
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• Oil prices rise on more balanced market, weaker dollar

  19-12-2016 11:13
  By Libby George LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday as a weaker dollar and the delay of new Libyan oil exports boosted benchmarks, amid expectations of tighter crude supply going into 2017. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 30 cents at $52.20 a barrel. Analysts said the increases, which built on gains of around 2 percent on Friday, were driven by a delay in crude oil supplies from Libya.
  
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• Hundreds of thousands of fish wash up on Cornish beach

  19-12-2016 11:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Mass beaching at Marazion at St Michael’s Mount is second such incident this monthThe shingle of one of the most picturesque beaches in Cornwall, Marazion at St Michael’s Mount, was covered in hundreds of thousands of dead fish at the weekend, the second time this month there has been a mass beaching of fish.Katrina Slack, who visited the beach on Sunday intending to photograph flocks of starlings, instead witnessed an extraordinary sight, shoals of dead fish. Continue reading...
  
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• No fridge, no TV: send your questions to the writer ditching technology | Sarah Marsh

  19-12-2016 09:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Mark Boyle is rejecting modern technology entirely. Post your comments or questions and we will mail them to himTechnology is king. Most people spend their days at work staring at a computer screen. When we’re not doing that we’re on our phones, scrolling through social media, watching Netflix, shopping online or warming up food in the microwave. So what happens when you try to ditch technological devices?Mark Boyle is going to find out and will write about his experiences over the n
  
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• Iran starts selling oil to Italy's Eni

  19-12-2016 09:25
  National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a short-term contract with Eni to sell crude, an Iranian official said on Monday, as it seeks to revive the agreement it had with the Italian oil major prior to sanctions on Tehran. "The National Iranian Oil Company has sold one cargo of crude oil to this Italian company," Mohsen Ghamsari, director for international affairs at the NIOC was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency, adding that the negotiations were underway to sign a long term deal. "If
  
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• The 50 best TV shows of 2016: No 1 Planet Earth II

  19-12-2016 08:03 via theguardian.com
  
  With amazing camera work and David Attenborough’s guiding words, 2016’s most outstanding television series made its rapt audience – and, most impressively, teenagers – re-engage emotionally with the animal kingdom To understand why scenes and scenarios in Planet Earth II were so affecting, I found myself reaching into an emotional vault I haven’t accessed since the 1980s. The fairy tern, who had come back to her massacred egg and continued to incubate it, even while
  
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• The seven deadly things we’re doing to trash the planet (and human life with it) | John Vidal

  19-12-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  We weep at the disappearance of endangered species but avert our eyes to the causes of Earth’s destructionA baby ibex on a precipitous cliff edge. The hyenas of Harar eating from a human hand. Leopards in Mumbai, whales breaching and baby turtles heading blindly away from the sea. We are amazed by images of wildlife seen in ever more beautifully filmed natural history documentaries. They raise awareness, entertain, inform and amuse. We weep when we hear there are fewer birds in the sky, or
  
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• Sudan's farmers work to save good soils as climate change brings desert closer | Hannah McNeish

  19-12-2016 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Haphazard rains and increasing desertification in the eastern state of Gedaref are destroying previously fertile soil and leaving villagers unable to farmIn Sudan’s eastern state of Gedaref, nicknamed “the granary” for its vast rows of sesame, sorghum and millet, banks of sediment and gravel are popping up as high as hills around the farms – the result of deforestation and erratic rains causing watering holes to overflow. Locals call them karab, meaning “something u
  
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• 'There's an elephant in the flowerbed again!'

  19-12-2016 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  What’s it like to live among elephants, to know that at any moment you might find yourself face to face with something so awe-inspiring – and so dangerous?My family and I have lived on the edge of the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary in the Nilgiri mountains, south India, for over three decades now. The children grew up here. Yet the thrill of knowing there’s an elephant in the garden is a feeling we all still savour. We cherish our elephant memories and can’t ever seem to be
  
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• A light wind creeping over the meadow face: Country diary 100 years ago

  19-12-2016 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 23 December 1916Surrey, December 21Rabbits could be seen playing in the meadow at the bottom of the down right up to the time when darkness came. There was no evening. The afternoon sky was just tinged with a strip of dull red in the west, and this patch of colour moved a little towards the north; then it died out. Nothing was visible except a planet and a few stars shining faintly, and seemingly very far away. Clouds in the higher sky came and
  
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• Experts stunned at theft of technology that saves Tasmanian devils from cars

  19-12-2016 06:22 via theguardian.com
  
  $145 wildlife warning devices are designed to scare devils off road and have limited resale valueThieves in Tasmania are stealing electronic fence posts designed to save the lives of endangered Tasmanian devils.The thefts have bewildered the manufacturers, who say the $145 wildlife warning devices serve no purpose other than deterring wildlife and have limited resale value. Continue reading...
  
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• Clean energy funds for Alcoa's Portland smelter might be unlawful, Greens say

  19-12-2016 06:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Greg Hunt suggested funds from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation could be used to build a new power station for the struggling plant A ministerial intervention aimed at using Clean Energy Finance Corporation funds to support a fossil-fuel electricity generator for the struggling Alcoa aluminium smelter could be unlawful, according to the Greens.Federal industry minister Greg Hunt and his Victorian counterpart, Wade Noonan, have left for New York to discuss with senior leaders of Alcoa how to
  
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• Rare ghost shark caught on film for the first time – video

  19-12-2016 05:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Video footage of the rare Hydrolagus trolli, also known as a chimaera or ghost shark, has been taken for the first time off the coast of California Continue reading...
  
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• Mysterious ghost shark caught on film for the first time

  19-12-2016 05:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Also known as chimaeras, the creatures have tooth plates instead of teeth and a retractable penis on their headsAmerican scientists surveying the depths of the ocean off the coast of California and Hawaii have unwittingly filmed the mysterious ghost shark for the first time.The team from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Center had sent a remote operated vehicle down to depths of 2,000 metres (6,700ft) when the creature appeared on their screens.Continue reading...
  
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• Oil prices rise in anticipation of tighter 2017 market

  19-12-2016 05:08
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday in anticipation of tighter crude supply going into 2017 following the decision by OPEC and other producers to cut output to prop up prices. Brent crude futures , the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $55.57 per barrel at 0401 GMT, up 36 cents, or 0.7 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were up 43 cents, or 0.8 percent, at $52.33 a barrel.
  
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• Driverless buses arrive in Australia: smart and green but what now for drivers?

  19-12-2016 03:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Autonomous buses are likely to be better for passengers and the environment, but not everyone is excited Clunking, dreary and seemingly always late – the humble bus struggles to catch hold of the imagination in the way of the charming trundle of trams or the power and rhythm of the train, butthe latest smart technologies promise to rejuvenate this long-maligned form of transport.Gone will be the days of waiting an eternity at stops only for three buses to arrive at once, languishing in tra
  
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• Oil prices edge up in anticipation of tighter 2017 market

  19-12-2016 01:57
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices inched up on Monday in anticipation of tighter crude supply going into 2017 following the decision by OPEC and other producers to cut output to prop up prices. Brent crude futures , the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading at $55.41 per barrel at 0043 GMT, up 20 cents, or 0.36 percent, from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were up 22 cents, or 0.42 percent, at $52.12 a barrel.
  
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• Risk of Christmas electricity blackouts next year, warn MPs

  19-12-2016 01:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Coal power station closures have put UK in danger of National Grid failing to meet demand over winter months, says reportBritain could be facing nationwide festive blackouts next winter unless radical changes are made to the UK’s electricity network, MPs have warned.A report called Electric Shock: Will The Christmas Lights Go Out Next Winter? has been published by the British Infrastructure Group (BIG) of MPs, chaired by Grant Shapps. Continue reading...
  
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• China finds new love for wildlife films

  19-12-2016 01:20 via bbc.co.uk
  
  British-Chinese cameraman Jacky Poon is one of a few professionals documenting endangered animals in China.
  
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