Environment news

• Fears of ‘dirty meat’ entering food chain after 25% of abattoirs fail tests

  18-02-2017 21:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Audits carried out at more than 300 abattoirs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland find major hygiene failings in more than a quarter of meat plantsOne in four slaughterhouses are failing to take basic hygiene precautions to stop contaminated meat reaching high street butchers and supermarkets.An analysis of government audits carried out at more than 300 abattoirs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland identified major hygiene failings in more than a quarter of the meat plants. The failings co
  
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• Gravity probe exceeds performance goals

  18-02-2017 18:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The long-planned space mission that seeks to detect gravitational waves is on course to be selected this summer.
  
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• A thousand day-old chicks abandoned in Peterborough field

  18-02-2017 14:55 via theguardian.com
  
  RSPCA believes baby chickens came from commercial producer but were dumped by a third partyAbout 1,000 day-old chicks have been abandoned in a field. RSPCA inspectors said members of the public made the discovery of the newly hatched chickens in a field in Crowland, near Peterborough, in Cambridgeshire on Friday.Many of the chicks are believed to be in good health, although some had died while others had to be put down due to their injuries, the animal welfare charity said. Continue reading...
  
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• Eclipse to be turned into megamovies

  18-02-2017 14:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Citizen photos taken during August's total solar eclipse in the US will be spliced into continuous videos.
  
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• Eclipse to be turned into mega-movies

  18-02-2017 14:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Citizen photos taken during August's total solar eclipse in the US will be spliced into continuous videos.
  
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• An 'Arctic' safari in the Scottish Highlands

  18-02-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Winter in the Cairngorms national park can turn positively Arctic – perfect for Kari Herbert to give her young daughter a taste of the polar conditions, and creatures, she enjoyed as a child in GreenlandThe temperature is below zero and a bitter wind is tugging at our clothes. In the distance, the Grampian hills are catching the early sunlight but it’s dark in the shadows of the wood. Curious eyes are trained on us from beneath the trees – a pack of grey wolves are just metres
  
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• Hope for Hanoi? New bus system could cut pollution … if enough people use it

  18-02-2017 11:58 via theguardian.com
  
  A new $53m BRT (bus rapid transit) system has the power to reduce Hanoi’s dreadful air pollution. Persuading residents of Vietnam’s rapidly expanding capital to ditch their motorbikes and private cars, however, will be another storyFrom his high-rise office building in Hanoi, Tran Dung can barely see his city’s skyline behind the thick layer of smog. Before leaving work, the 25-year-old executive assistant checks the pollution reading on his AirVisual app, which provides real-t
  
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• Naica's crystal caves hold long-dormant life

  18-02-2017 08:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Long-dormant microbes are found inside giant crystals of the Naica mountain caves - and revived.
  
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• Co-op Bank is up for sale – is it time to leave?

  18-02-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Its ethical values and cooperative approach are under threat. We look at what it means for its 1.4 million current account customers, and at the alternativesYou opened an account with The Co-operative Bank because of its ethical values. You shuddered when the first news of its £1.5bn financial black hole emerged. You cringed over lurid stories of its “crystal Methodist” chairman. You came close to leaving when the hedge funds took control. Now, as the bank puts itself up for sa
  
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• Winged surprise lifts spirits on a cold morning

  18-02-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Slufters Inclosure, New Forest This hardy specimen of butterfly has found an ideal basking site among still damp grasses in a bed of fern On a bright, cold morning, sandwiched between days of rain and nights of frost, we explore Slufters Inclosure, an area first separated in 1862, when it was planted with Scots pine. It is 6C (43F) when we leave home but the southerly slopes here are harvesting the heat of the sun, and the temperature gradually lifts (just) into double figures. It’s enough
  
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• Deep-pocketed miners don’t like it when those with different views wield clout | Lenore Taylor

  18-02-2017 00:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Minerals Council seems mostly intent on using its submission to electoral donations committee to kneecap environmental groups opposed to new minesIn 2010 the mining industry’s $22m campaign against Kevin Rudd’s resources tax helped bring down a prime minister. For years it has spent huge sums on donations and advertising and lobbying to exert enormous political influence. But the deep-pocketed miners really don’t like it when those with different views find the cash and the
  
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