Environment news

• Urban heat islands: cooling things down with trees, green roads and fewer cars

  20-02-2017 23:50
  
  As city temperatures rise, with a negative impact on health, councils are coming up with some innovative solutions When it comes to coping with heatwaves, our own cities are conspiring against us. Road surfaces, pavements and buildings all contribute to keeping urbanised environments three to four degrees hotter than surrounding non-urbanised areas.With heatwaves like the ones that have just baked half of Australia to a crisp forecast to increase in frequency and intensity, city councils are tak
  
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• Do mild days fuel climate change scepticism?

  20-02-2017 22:30
  
  When it comes to the weather, research suggests people often trust the evidence of their own eyes rather than expert opinionWhy do so many people remain sceptical about climate change when the evidence for it seems so obvious? One recent study may offer an interesting clue, because American scientists stood the argument on its head and looked at places across the globe that will probably enjoy more pleasant weather with climate change.For Britain, northern Europe and North America there will be
  
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• Software glitch to blame for blackout of extra 60,000 SA homes in heatwave

  20-02-2017 21:54
  
  The South Australian network operator says a software problem led to load shedding of 300MW instead of the 100MW requested by national market SA Power Networks has said it knew a software glitch caused an additional 60,000 houses in South Australia to be out of power during load shedding this month. Yet the state’s network operator stayed quiet for a week and a half while the Turnbull government continued to criticise the South Australian government’s use of renewables.Continue readi
  
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• More than 70% believe Coalition not doing enough on energy – poll

  20-02-2017 20:11
  
  Guardian Essential survey shows a clear majority supports Labor’s goal of sourcing 50% of energy from renewables by 2030More than 70% of voters think the Turnbull government is not doing enough to ensure affordable, reliable and clean energy for Australian households and businesses – and a clear majority also supports Labor’s goal of sourcing 50% of energy from renewable sources by 2030.
  The latest Guardian Essential poll suggests that the Turnbull government’s relentless
  
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• A world safe for robots and mammoths | Letters

  20-02-2017 19:31
  
  Woolly mammoths | Transport investment | Baby boomers | Flat cakes | WeetabixCan it be right to bring back the mammoth (Report, 17 February)? It disappeared at the beginning of this man-made age of extinction. For it to be returned towards its end, with declining populations of elephants and rhinos, is irony itself. It also highlights that technology is now so poorly controlled that the march of scientific ability will continue to outpace its ethics. Is a world of super-intelligent robots and th
  
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• Climate scepticism is a far-right badge of honour – even in sweltering Australia

  20-02-2017 19:14
  
  It’s up to progressives to fight back against this idiocy-promoting rhetoric and save the Earth
  It hits you in the face and clings to you. It makes tall buildings whine as their air conditioning plants struggle to cope. It makes the streets deserted and the ice-cold salons of corner pubs get crowded with people who don’t like beer. It is the Aussie heatwave: and it is no joke.Temperatures in the western suburbs of Sydney, far from the upmarket beachside glamour, reached 47C (117F) la
  
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• Scientists 'solve' the ketchup problem

  20-02-2017 18:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A super-slippery coating for bottles could make getting liquids out much easier, US scientists say.
  
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• Can we have too many trees? | Patrick Barkham

  20-02-2017 18:42
  
  Hunting and mountaineering organisations say that plans to increase forest cover in Scotland will ruin the countryside. I disagreeA couple of summers ago, I strolled through Glen Feshie, wondering why this beautiful corner of the Cairngorms didn’t feel British. Ah, that’s it: little Scots pines poked through the heather alongside baby willows, dog rose, black grouse and other burgeoning signs of life. Related: Scottish gamekeepers and mountaineers oppose tree-planting planContinue re
  
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• Slippery bottle solves ketchup problem

  20-02-2017 18:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists in Boston have found a way to get every last drop of ketchup out of the bottle.
  
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• First-class sustainability: How Royal Mail is leading the way on employee engagement

  20-02-2017 17:42
  
  Employee Engagement & Behaviour Change winner at the Sustainability Leaders Awards, Royal Mail Group explains how it has implemented an ambitious, company-wide engagement programme to deliver sustainability success.
  
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• The Sustainable Business Covered podcast: Episode 21 - Getting engaged with sustainability

  20-02-2017 17:15
  
  It's all about engagement this month on edie and for this special episode of the Sustainable Business Covered podcast we sit down with the experts to discuss the most effective ways of ensuring your key stakeholders are on-board and engaged with your sustainability strategy.
  
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• How to surf the organic food boom on the cheap

  20-02-2017 16:10
  
  Sales for pesticide-free produce are flourishing, with Aldi and Lidl getting in on the trend. Here’s how to stock up on inexpensive chocolate and budget peanut butterSo much for the view that organic food is just a navel-gazing lifestyle preoccupation for the neurotic rich. The latest UK market figures show that sales for organic produce are booming – at their strongest in a decade – with a 15% hike last year at Tesco alone.In growth terms, organic is now outperforming the non-
  
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• Fish under threat from ocean oxygen depletion, finds study

  20-02-2017 15:28
  
  Oxygen levels in oceans have fallen 2% in 50 years due to climate change, affecting marine habitat and large fish such as tuna and sharksThe depletion of oxygen in our oceans threatens future fish stocks and risks altering the habitat and behaviour of marine life, scientists have warned, after a new study found oceanic oxygen levels had fallen by 2% in 50 years.The study, carried out at Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Germany, was the most comprehensive of the subject to date. The
  
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• Sir David Attenborough to return for BBC's Blue Planet II

  20-02-2017 14:15
  
  Seven-episode series to air this year will include footage of newly discovered and never-before filmed creaturesThe new series of Blue Planet will feature Sir David Attenborough’s familiar narration, as the BBC aims to repeat the success of Planet Earth II. The voice of the UK’s most-loved naturalist will accompany footage filmed over four years when the series airs across seven episodes on BBC1 this year. Continue reading...
  
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• London’s pollution is so bad that it forced me to give up my dream PhD | Vicky Ware

  20-02-2017 14:10
  
  Arriving to study, I had my first asthma attack in 10 years. The capital’s shocking air quality is a health emergency – and it’s already costing livesWhile the mayor of London Sadiq Khan is acting on the fact that London breached its annual air pollution limit within just five days this year by advising Londoners to remain indoors, limit heavy breathing, and eat vegetables – seemingly everything other than not driving – millions of people are suffering serious healt
  
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• Twinings brews up new human rights framework in fresh CSR drive

  20-02-2017 14:04
  
  British tea brand Twinings has launched a pioneering global sustainability framework as part of a mission to improve the lives of half a million people in the global tea supply chain by 2020.
  
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• Twinings brews up new human rights framework in CSR drive

  20-02-2017 14:04
  
  British tea brand Twinings has launched a pioneering global sustainability framework as part of a mission to improve the lives of half a million people in the global tea supply chain by 2020.
  
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• Lord Drayson and Moovit unveil air monitoring transport app for UK commuters

  20-02-2017 12:49
  
  Commuters attempting to navigate around London and other UK cities on public transport can now generate routes that keep clear of areas with high levels of air pollution, through a new data collection add-on for the world's number one transport app Moovit.
  
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• Expect to see more emergencies like Oroville Dam in a hotter world | Dana Nuccitelli

  20-02-2017 12:00
  
  Scientists predicted decades ago that climate change would add stress to water management systems like Oroville Dam
  The evacuation of nearly 200,000 people near Oroville Dam is the kind of event that makes climate change personal. A co-worker of mine was forced out of his home for several days by the emergency evacuation, and another friend was visiting Lake Oroville and happened to leave 15 minutes before the evacuation order was issued.Like many extreme events, the Oroville emergency is a comb
  
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• Tech giants rally behind US energy storage market

  20-02-2017 11:54
  
  A US-based coalition featuring companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla as members has applauded the efforts of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to open-up US wholesale electricity markets to energy storage and demand response initiatives.
  
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• 'The wild west of wind': Republicans push Texas as unlikely green energy leader

  20-02-2017 09:01
  
  The most oil-rich and fracking-friendly of states has found itself with the improbable status of being a national leader in a wind energy boomLiving in New York and Washington, Greg Wortham heard all the grand talk about green energy from liberal politicians. Then he returned to the place where he grew up, a small town that embraced wind power so warmly that within a couple of years of the first turbine turning, it had some of the biggest farms on the planet.Yet Wortham is not from California, O
  
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• Climate change in the US: the dangers and the solutions – about this series

  20-02-2017 09:00
  
  This Guardian US series of articles and films on climate change will focus on people already impacted, displaced or threatened by sea level rise, and will examine how the threat can be tackled, including with clean energyThis content is funded with support, in part, from the Skoll Foundation. Content is editorially independent and focuses on solutions to climate change and its impact.
  All our journalism follows GNM’s published editorial code. The Guardian is committed to open journalism, r
  
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• How air pollution harms your health - and how to avoid it

  20-02-2017 08:30
  
  It can cause eye irritation, breathing difficulties and heart disease. Here are ways to limit the damageThe European Commission has told the UK to clean up its air. Levels of nitrogen dioxide – which is linked to heart and lung disease and contributes to the early deaths of 40,000 people a year in the UK – are particularly bad. We’re not the only ones with filthy air; the five most-developed countries in the EU (Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK) are all in breach of the
  
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• Harrogate Water turns to iconic Tidyman logo to raise recycling awareness

  20-02-2017 08:00
  
  As reports emerge that UK ministers are likely to reject a plastic bottle deposit scheme, Britain's largest independent bottled water company has agreed to place the iconic 'Tidyman' logo on its products in a new partnership with Keep Britain Tidy.
  
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• Government 'clean coal' push would be likely to make Australia's emissions worse | Tristan Edis

  20-02-2017 07:53
  
  Coalition plan for more efficient coal plants could well increase emissions in a sector that is the second most polluting in the developed worldThe government has indicated it will act to allow the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to finance new coal-fired power plants on the basis that these coal plants have lower emissions than existing coal power plants.While such power plants may have lower emissions than Australia’s ageing and extremely inefficient existing coal plants, they would mos
  
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• Campaigners reject plastics-to-fuel projects: but are they right?

  20-02-2017 07:30
  
  Campaigns in the UK and Australia point to grassroots backlash against plastics-to-fuel sector that could be worth £1.5bn by 2024“A rural residential community is not the right site to be testing this technology,” says Naomi Joyce, a solicitor from Appley Bridge, Lancashire. Born and raised in the village, Joyce helped to lead its fight against a proposed waste-to-fuel plant, which had hoped to convert up to 6,000 tonnes of plastic rubbish into diesel, gasoline and other produc
  
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• The UK’s vegetable shortage was not a blip – it’s a sign of things to come | Felicity Lawrence

  20-02-2017 07:00
  
  Brexit, migration and climate pressures mean our ‘too big to fail’ global food chain could unravelThe UK’s clock has been set to Permanent Global Summer Time once more after a temporary blip. Courgettes, spinach and iceberg lettuce are back on the shelves, and the panic over the lack of imported fruit and vegetables has been contained. “As you were, everyone,” appears to be the message.But why would supermarkets – which are said to have lost sales worth as muc
  
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• The supermarket food gamble may be up | Felicity Lawrence

  20-02-2017 07:00
  
  Brexit, migration and climate pressures mean our ‘too big to fail’ global food chain could unravelThe UK’s clock has been set to Permanent Global Summer Time once more after a temporary blip. Courgettes, spinach and iceberg lettuce are back on the shelves, and the panic over the lack of imported fruit and vegetables has been contained. “As you were, everyone,” appears to be the message.But why would supermarkets – which are said to have lost sales worth as muc
  
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• Close encounter with a hare – a rare sight in the West Country

  20-02-2017 06:30
  
  West Dartmoor To have chanced across this night-roamer, lolloping calmly across the muddy lane, was a rare privilege indeed.Hemmed in on either side by tall hedgerows, this narrow Dartmoor lane skirts the flank of higher ground and scores a deep furrow between fields so that after dark you feel you are tunnelling through the terrain, headlights tracing a leaden seam of asphalt. There is little traffic here to trouble nocturnal wildlife. Over the years I have come across badgers, heads striped li
  
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• AAAS chief puts weight behind protest march

  20-02-2017 05:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  April's pro-science Washington rally has the full backing of the world's largest scientific membership organisation.
  
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• Turnbull says own rooftop solar not inconsistent with 'clean-coal' message

  20-02-2017 05:31
  
  Prime minister agrees his personal 14.5kW system on the roof of his Sydney home, with battery storage, is a ‘large array’Malcolm Turnbull has hit back at suggestions that his house’s large personal rooftop solar and battery system sends a message contrary to the government’s endorsement of “clean coal”.He rejected the idea that he had ever been critical of the renewables sector and dismissed his treasurer’s brandishing of a lump of coal in question time
  
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• Ice-locked ship to drift over North Pole

  20-02-2017 02:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  German research vessel Polarstern is set for a remarkable year-long expedition in the Arctic.
  
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• Conversation’s last refuge: the art, and heart, of talking about the weather | Gabrielle Jackson

  20-02-2017 02:26
  
  When one half of the population literally cannot imagine how the other half thinks, small talk about the weather is an entrée to our shared humanityIt’s one of the most maligned conversation starters in the English-speaking world, and yet not only is it consequential, it’s good for us. I’m talking about the weather. Again. Yes, I am an unapologetic lift talker and mostly that involves kicking off a conversation about the weather. Especially when we’re in the middle
  
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• Environmentalists and libertarians unite in HS2 criticism

  20-02-2017 01:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Friends of the Earth and Taxpayers' Alliance are normally at odds on policy, but both criticise HS2
  
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• Sir David Attenborough to present Blue Planet sequel

  20-02-2017 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The sequel to 2001's ocean series is due to be shown later this year on BBC One.
  
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• Scientists to repeat 19th-century ship's crossing of polar ice cap

  20-02-2017 01:01
  
  Ambitious Mosaic expedition will study weather patterns and life in melt ponds from vessel drifting with the ice currentIn 1893 the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen embarked on a mission of extraordinary boldness and ingenuity. He planned to become the first person to reach the north pole by allowing his wooden vessel, the Fram, to be engulfed by sea ice and pulled across the polar cap on an ice current.Ultimately, Nansen ended up abandoning the Fram and skiing hundreds of miles to a British b
  
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