Environment news

• U.S. crude settles at 17-month high after small, pre-holiday gain

  23-12-2016 21:25
  By Scott DiSavino NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices closed at a 17-month high on Friday in quiet trade ahead of the Christmas and New Year holiday week, even though the gain was small, as the market waits to see how OPEC manages its planned output cuts with Libya expecting to boost production. Brent futures gained 11 cents, or 0.2 percent, to settle at $55.16 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude gained seven cents, or 0.1 percent, to settle at $53.02, its highest close sin
  
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• Zimbabwe ships live elephants to wildlife parks in China

  23-12-2016 20:43
  
  Wildlife advocates said the animals, which were being readied for shipment on Friday night, were unsuitable for live exportMore than 30 wild elephants were being readied on Friday evening for an airlift from Zimbabwe to captivity in China, according to wildlife advocates.The founder of Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, Johnny Rodrigues, said on Friday that their plane was still at Victoria Falls airport because officials could not find scales big enough to weigh the animals, which were confined
  
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• New tag revolutionizes whale research - and makes them partners in science

  23-12-2016 19:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  NEWPORT, Ore. – A sophisticated new type of “tag” on whales that can record data every second for hours, days and weeks at a time provides a view of whale behavior, biology and travels never before possible, scientists from Oregon State University reported today in a new study.
  
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• Oil dips before holiday week; Libyan output boost weighs

  23-12-2016 17:01
  By Scott DiSavino NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil edged lower on Friday ahead of the Christmas and New Year holiday week as the market waited to see how OPEC would manage its planned output cuts with Libya expecting to boost production. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 22 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $52.73 per barrel. "The complex has begun the pre-holiday trade under moderate downside pressures that are erasing yesterday's gains," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Chicago-based energy advisory firm R
  
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• Teargas, trees and oil: my life in the greatest job on earth | John Vidal

  23-12-2016 17:00
  
  In 27 years as environment editor at the Guardian, I have seen both devastation and progress. Now I’m retiring – but I still have hope for the future of the planetIn September 1989, Guardian editor Peter Preston took me to one side. “Environment? Your idea. You do it,” he said. I was on the arts desk and had quite forgotten that, two years earlier, I had proposed that we cover this fast-emerging issue in more depth and with new pages.We had a great correspondent in Paul B
  
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• UK car shapes up for solar challenge

  23-12-2016 15:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A British team is in the final stages of designing its car for next year's World Solar Challenge in the Australian desert.
  
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• Arctic ice, fracking and the year's top animal photos – green news roundup

  23-12-2016 14:29
  
  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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• Mari Friend obituary

  23-12-2016 14:10
  
  “Only vicar’s daughters become naturalists.” This was the response of Stan Micklethwaite when his young daughter Mari (my future wife) declared her life’s ambition. Stan spent most of his working life weighing wagons of coal at the pithead of Barrow colliery near Barnsley, yet his many active leisure pursuits included beekeeping and gardening, with Mari always at his side, eager to learn. Neither Stan nor Mari’s mother, Nellie, lived to hear of the fame that Mari, w
  
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• Children collapse from hunger after poor harvests in Zimbabwe – in pictures

  23-12-2016 12:58
  
  The aftermath of southern Africa’s drought is having a devastating impact in rural Zimbabwe. More than four million people will be in need of food aid between January and March 2017, nearly half the rural populationAll photographs by Justin Jin Continue reading...
  
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• Putin says Russia will cut oil output, cooperate with OPEC as planned

  23-12-2016 12:19
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will cut crude oil output and will cooperate with OPEC to support global oil prices, President Vladimir Putin said at his end-of-year news conference on Friday. Putin said he hoped oil prices would stabilise at current levels, above the average oil price of $40 per barrel factored into Russia's budget. Putin said the country's oil-dependent budget would receive an extra 1.75 trillion roubles (23.38 billion pounds) next year if oil prices averaged $50 per barrel. ...
  
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• Oil slips below $55 as dollar, Libyan production boost weigh

  23-12-2016 10:45
  By Alex Lawler LONDON (Reuters) - Oil slipped below $55 a barrel on Friday as a stronger U.S. dollar weighed on commodities and as higher Libyan output threatened to counter some of the supply cuts planned by OPEC and other producers. Crude is still trading around its highest since mid-2015, supported by a deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-members to lower output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day from Jan. 1. Brent crude was down 32 cents at $54.73 a barre
  
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• Friday’s best TV – Wild Tales from the Village; assorted Christmas specials

  23-12-2016 08:20
  
  The Missing’s Tchéky Karyo livens up a highly stylised film about French garden wildlife, while The Last Leg and Stella get silly and seasonal Continue reading...
  
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• The country set to cash in on climate change

  23-12-2016 08:00
  
  Record temperatures threaten traditional ways of life in Greenland but as the sea ice retreats, new mining, fishing and tourism opportunities are helping communities to adaptAsked if he is fearful about the impact of climate change, Tønnes “Kaka” Berthelsen’s response is typical of many Greenlanders. “We are more concerned about the Maldives,” he said bluntly.Greenland has lived with extreme environmental changes for a decade or more. Sea ice is forming two m
  
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• Greenland: the country set to cash in on climate change

  23-12-2016 08:00
  
  Record temperatures threaten traditional ways of life in Greenland but as the sea ice retreats, new mining, fishing and tourism opportunities are helping communities to adaptAsked if he is fearful about the impact of climate change, Tønnes “Kaka” Berthelsen’s response is typical of many Greenlanders. “We are more concerned about the Maldives,” he said bluntly.Greenland has lived with extreme environmental changes for a decade or more. Sea ice is forming two m
  
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• Arctic oil rush: Nenets' livelihood and habitat at risk from oil spills

  23-12-2016 08:00
  
  An oil terminal to be built in northern Russia where the river Yenisei meets the Arctic Ocean lacks the technology to deal with oil spills, say environmentalistsThe livelihood of the Nenets people who live along the northern stretches of the Yenisei, Russia’s longest river, depends on two pursuits: fishing and reindeer herding.But locals have said both of those activities are under threat from an oil terminal due to be built on the Tanalau cape, near where the river empties into the Arctic
  
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• Shanghai water supply hit by 100-tonne wave of garbage

  23-12-2016 07:46
  
  Ships are suspected of dumping waste upstream on China’s Yangtze river before it floats into a key city reservoirMedical waste, broken bottles and household trash are some of the items found in more than 100 tonnes of garbage salvaged near a drinking water reservoir in Shanghai.
  The suspected culprits are two ships that have been dumping waste upstream in the Yangtze river. It has then flowed downstream to the reservoir on Shanghai’s Chongming island which is also home to 700,000 peo
  
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• A 10 from Len: Strictly special to drive biggest TV power spike this Christmas

  23-12-2016 07:00
  
  National Grid expect Len Goodman’s show to create a ‘TV pickup’ as people across the country boil kettles, flush toilets and switch on lights after the showLen Goodman will follow in the footsteps of David Jason, Pauline Collins and an extraterrestrial as one of Christmas TV’s top challenges for the people tasked with keeping the lights on.
  When the judge finishes reminiscing over 12 years of Strictly Come Dancing on Friday night, kettles will be boiled, lights switched o
  
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• The snap of a twig, the running of the deer

  23-12-2016 06:30
  
  Fermyn Woods, Northamptonshire I watch them through thickets of interwoven hazel and birch as they make their getawayCrack! A stick snaps a little distance to my right. Too big a snap for a small animal. Probably deer-sized, I estimate. I wonder how close I can get to the originator before being detected in the wood’s growing afternoon gloom. I creep away from the muddy path, through snagging brambles and naked hazel. I have advanced 15 meters towards the target when I feel a stick give un
  
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• Some young dinosaurs shed teeth, say experts

  23-12-2016 04:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Some dinosaurs shed their teeth as they grew up, according to fossil evidence.
  
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• Oil prices fall on profit taking, strong dollar

  23-12-2016 02:45
  By Keith Wallis SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped on Friday in thin Asian trade ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, wiping out some of the gains in the previous session as traders took profits. A strong dollar also weighed on sentiment. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 31 cents to $52.64 a barrel as of 0127 GMT after settling 46 cents, or 0.9 percent, up in the previous session.
  
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• Sighting of uncontacted Amazonian tribe – in pictures

  23-12-2016 00:07
  
  Brazilian photographer Ricardo Stuckert captured amazing close-up photographs of an uncontacted Amazonian tribe after his helicopter flight took a detour to avoid a rainstorm and happened to fly over their longhouse Continue reading...
  
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