Environment news

• Plastic 'nurdles' found littering UK beaches

  17-02-2017 21:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Billions of tiny plastic lentil-sized pellets can be spotted on UK shores - but how do 'nurdles' get there?
  
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• Looking for the next leap in rechargeable batteries

  17-02-2017 21:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  USC researchers may have just found a solution for one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the next wave of rechargeable batteries — small enough for cellphones and powerful enough for cars.
  
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• Why a Southern California Refinery Explosion Could Kill Thousands

  17-02-2017 20:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  One morning in February 2015, I felt a rumble. Was it an earthquake? No. It was an explosion at the ExxonMobil oil refinery a few miles away. The refinery is located in the middle of a residential area of Torrance, Calif.
  
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• It's More than Just Climate Change

  17-02-2017 20:48 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new scientific paper by a University of Maryland-led international team of distinguished scientists, including five members of the National Academies, argues that there are critical two-way feedbacks missing from current climate models that are used to inform environmental, climate, and economic policies. The most important inadequately-modeled variables are inequality, consumption, and population.
  
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• Fish affected by Deepwater Horizon spill give clues to air pollution heart disease

  17-02-2017 20:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  A study by Manchester and Stanford scientists into the effects on fish of a 2010 oil disaster could shed new light on how air pollution affects humans’ hearts.The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster resulted in a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an area of water which is heavily populated with fish species. In a paper published in Nature Scientific Reports, the team analysed the effects of individual components of crude oil on the hearts of fish.
  
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• Wearing Your Brain on Your Sleeve

  17-02-2017 20:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  One BU researcher uses wearable devices to look for clues to early dementia and Alzheimer’s
  
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• Scott Pruitt confirmed as EPA head despite failure to release emails

  17-02-2017 20:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Senate approves former Oklahoma attorney general 52-46Court ordered new environmental head to release emails to fossil fuel industryOklahoma’s attorney general, Scott Pruitt, has won Senate confirmation to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a federal agency he repeatedly sued to rein in its reach during the Obama administration.The vote on Friday was 52-46 as Republican leaders used their party’s narrow Senate majority to push Pruitt’s confirmation despite calls from Dem
  
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• Quality of life with those with advanced cancer improved through walking

  17-02-2017 19:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Walking for just 30 minutes three times per week could improve the quality of life for those with advanced cancer, a new study published in the BMJ Open journal has found.
  
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• River Rapids Boost Species Diversity

  17-02-2017 19:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  Museum researchers working in the lower Congo River have long been impressed by the remarkable biodiversity of the region—and curious as to what drives it.
  
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• GM hens help build 'frozen aviary' in Edinburgh

  17-02-2017 19:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Genetically-modified hens that can lay eggs from different poultry breeds are helping scientists set up a "frozen aviary" to conserve rare birds.
  
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• Drones Are Turning Civilians Into an Air Force of Citizen Scientists

  17-02-2017 19:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  Last winter, as meteorologists warned of a monster El Niño, researchers at the Nature Conservancy in California prepared to mobilize. El Niño promised to bring in king tides that would raise the sea level by as much as one foot above normal during high tide, causing flooding along the coastline that researchers could study as a preview of climate change-induced sea level rise. But when a king tide arrives, it floods lots of pockets along the coastline at once. So they dec
  
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• Innovative battery system links solar park to the grid

  17-02-2017 17:31
  
  A pioneering £1m battery storage system in Somerset will transfer power to the local electricity network after linking directly to a nearby 1.5MW solar park.
  
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• Pity the imperilled butterfly, fluttering out of toxic lives. Pity us, too | Philip Hoare

  17-02-2017 16:54 via theguardian.com
  
  At a time of urban growth, nature is feared, subjugated and concreted over. But now, more than ever, we need the chaos of wildnessPity the poor butterfly, reduced in its urban environment by 69%, compared with a 45% fall in the countryside. But is its fate any wonder? Our urban and suburban streets have become deserts abandoned to the car, where walking is a subversive act and trees are offensive structures to be hacked down to size or uprooted entirely should they dare to get in the way of our
  
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• Four-Stroke Engine Cycle Produces Hydrogen from Methane and Captures CO2

  17-02-2017 16:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  When is an internal combustion engine not an internal combustion engine? When it’s been transformed into a modular reforming reactor that could make hydrogen available to power fuel cells wherever there’s a natural gas supply available.By adding a catalyst, a hydrogen separating membrane and carbon dioxide sorbent to the century-old four-stroke engine cycle, researchers have demonstrated a laboratory-scale hydrogen reforming system that produces the green fuel at relatively low tempe
  
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• WWF: Third-party sustainability standards can advance SDG progress for business

  17-02-2017 16:41
  
  Businesses can contribute strongly to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and unlock new market opportunities by using credible voluntary sustainability standards, a new report from WWF has claimed.
  
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• NIST Quest for Climate-Friendly Refrigerants Finds Complicated Choices

  17-02-2017 16:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have just completed a multiyear study to identify the “best” candidates for future use as air conditioning refrigerants that will have the lowest impact on the climate.Unfortunately, all 27 fluids NIST identified as the best from a performance viewpoint are at least slightly flammable, which is not allowed under U.S. safety codes for most end uses. Several fluids among the list of refrigerants are highly flammab
  
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• Wildlife ranger killed in Zambia leaves behind seven children

  17-02-2017 16:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Rodrick Ngulube was shot by poachers in West Petauke game management area, after rangers discovered carcasses of a warthog and zebraAt 7am on 12 February, 37-year-old wildlife ranger Rodrick Ngulube was gunned down by poachers in Zambia’s West Petauke game management area. Ngulube and fellow rangers had been tracking seven poachers since the night before when the incident occurred. The slain ranger is survived by his wife and seven children.The sound of a gunshot the day before had set off
  
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• 'We are rewriting the textbooks': first dives to Amazon coral reef stun scientists

  17-02-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Scientists have discovered the river reef is far bigger, and more important, than first thought – a biodiversity hotspot on a par with the Great Barrier Reef. Now they face a race to protect it from big oilThere is a flickering, bright glimmer of sky as the two-person submarine descends beneath the muddy equatorial waters to a place no human has ever seen – a vast, complex coral reef at the mouth of the world’s greatest river.Thirty metres under the murky plume of the sediment-
  
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• Technology growth can spur low-carbon energy system and save $1.6trn, says report

  17-02-2017 14:58
  
  The rapid rise of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), automation, data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) could save between $900bn to $1.6trn to the global economy by 2035, according to a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI).
  
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• Researchers Design Facial Recognition System as a Less Invasive Approach to Tracking Lemurs in the Wild

  17-02-2017 14:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  A team of researchers has developed a new computer-assisted recognition system that can identify individual lemurs in the wild by their facial characteristics and ultimately help to build a database for long-term research on lemur species. The scientists hope this method has the potential to redefine how researchers track endangered species in the wild. 
  
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• Ocean mapping XPRIZE cuts teams to 21

  17-02-2017 13:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The international competition to drive innovation in seafloor mapping announces the teams that will take part in its semi-final stage.
  
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• How untreated water is making our kids sick

  17-02-2017 13:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  A Florida State University researcher has drawn a link between the impact of climate change and untreated drinking water on the rate of gastrointestinal illness in children.
  
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• Alpine ski resorts could lose up to 70% of snow cover by 2100 – experts

  17-02-2017 12:48 via theguardian.com
  
  European Geosciences Union report says global warming likely to see snowfall replaced by rain across the AlpsAlpine ski resorts are facing the loss of up to 70% of their snow cover by the end of the century, experts have said.Even in the best-case scenarios, global warming is likely to see snowfall replaced by rain across the Alps, according to the European Geosciences Union (EGU). Continue reading...
  
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• London to enforce world's 'toughest' vehicle emissions charge in October, says Sadiq Khan

  17-02-2017 12:42
  
  The "toughest" emission standard of any world city will enter into force in London from October 23, after London Mayor Sadiq Khan today (17 February) confirmed a £10 T-Charge to help curb air pollution in the capital.
  
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• Corporate Governance Reform must account for long-term sustainability, says IEMA

  17-02-2017 11:47
  
  Attempts to enhance the competitiveness of UK businesses through the Corporate Governance Reform should account for long-term financial performances covering environmental and social factors, the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) has claimed.
  
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• London to introduce £10 vehicle pollution charge, says Sadiq Khan

  17-02-2017 11:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Mayor says owners of more polluting cars will have to pay extra levy from October to drive within congestion charge zoneOlder, more polluting cars will have to pay a £10 charge to drive in central London from 23 Octoberthe city’s mayor, has said.Confirming he would press ahead with the fee, known as the T-charge, Sadiq Khan said: “It’s staggering that we live in a city where the air is so toxic that many of our children are growing up with lung problems. If we don’t
  
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• Welcome home, Lonesome George: giant tortoise returns to Galapagos

  17-02-2017 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  After almost five years with taxidermists in New York, Lonesome George has returned home. He may be dead, but his legacy is very much aliveLonesome George is back in Galapagos.Following the death of the celebrity tortoise in June 2012, his remains were sent to New York to be preserved by expert taxidermists. With the support of the Galapagos Conservancy, the last Pinta tortoise was the star of a highly successful exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in 2014. Today, he flies back
  
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• Apra says companies must factor climate risks into business outlook

  17-02-2017 08:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate change threatens the financial system and companies should no longer view it as a future problem, regulator warnsAustralia’s financial regulator has warned that climate change poses a material risk to the entire financial system, and has urged companies to start adapting.Geoff Summerhayes, from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, says it is unsafe for companies to ignore the risks of climate change just because there is some uncertainty, or “even some controversy&
  
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• The Climate Group strengthens leadership team

  17-02-2017 08:15
  
  The Climate Group has today (16 February) bolstered its global leadership team with the double appointment of a new chief executive and a UK board trustee.
  
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• 'Forest cities': the radical plan to save China from air pollution

  17-02-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Stefano Boeri, the architect famous for his plant-covered skyscrapers, has designs to create entire new green settlements in a nation plagued by dirty airWhen Stefano Boeri imagines the future of urban China he sees green, and lots of it. Office blocks, homes and hotels decked from top to toe in a verdant blaze of shrubbery and plant life; a breath of fresh air for metropolises that are choking on a toxic diet of fumes and dust.Last week, the Italian architect, famed for his tree-clad Bosco Vert
  
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• Call for brain donors

  17-02-2017 07:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists are calling for more people to donate their brains to research to help find cures for mental and psychological disorders.
  
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• Cardiff Uni's new way of making compounds for drugs

  17-02-2017 07:28 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers in Cardiff develop a new "highly-efficient" method of extracting disease-fighting compounds.
  
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• Zealandia: Is there an eighth continent under New Zealand?

  17-02-2017 07:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  It's almost all under water, but Zealandia should be considered a continent, say researchers.
  
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• Omens turn to charm in Ted Hughes' badlands

  17-02-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Mexborough, South Yorkshire No longer ‘more or less solid chemicals’, the gunmetal waters of the Don are clean enough for salmonThere were wisps of snow in the liverish sky over Main Street, Mexborough. I passed a shop offering cash for clothes, 40p a kilo, across the road from a tattoo parlour, and then stopped outside its shuttered neighbour. This was, from 1938, the family home of Ted Hughes. The poet’s parents ran it as a newsagent’s.Continue reading...
  
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• Scientists appeal for more people to donate their brains

  17-02-2017 05:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  They say they are lacking the brains of people with disorders such as depression and PTSD.
  
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• UK scientists seek closer relationship with US after Brexit

  17-02-2017 04:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Research institutions want to make it easier for scientists to collaborate and share facilities.
  
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• Tiny plastic pellets found on 73% of UK beaches

  17-02-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Great Winter Nurdle Hunt finds thousands of pellets used in plastic production washed up on shorelines around countryA search of hundreds of beaches across the UK has found almost three-quarters of them are littered with tiny plastic pellets.The lentil-size pellets known as “nurdles” are used as a raw material by industry to make new plastic products.Continue reading...
  
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