Environment news

• Taking Earth's Inner Temperature

  02-03-2017 22:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  The temperature of Earth’s interior affects everything from the movement of tectonic plates to the formation of the planet.A new study led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) suggests the mantle—the mostly solid, rocky part of Earth’s interior that lies between its super-heated core and its outer crustal layer – may be hotter than previously believed. The new finding, published March 3 in the journal Science, could change how scientists think about many is
  
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• NASA Study Improves Forecasts of Summer Arctic Sea Ice

  02-03-2017 21:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Arctic has been losing sea ice over the past several decades as Earth warms. However, each year, as the sea ice starts to melt in the spring following its maximum wintertime extent, scientists still struggle to estimate exactly how much ice they expect will disappear through the melt season. Now, a new NASA forecasting model based on satellite measurements is allowing researchers to make better estimates.Forecasts of how much Arctic sea ice will shrink from spring into fall is valuable infor
  
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• Climate research needs greater focus on human populations

  02-03-2017 20:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Climate change research needs a greater focus on changing population structures when assessing future human vulnerability, argue IIASA researchers in a new perspective article in the journal Nature Climate Change.Climate research has provided a range of scenarios of showing how climate change will affect global temperatures, water resources, agriculture, and many other areas. Yet it remains unclear how all these potential changes could affect future human wellbeing. In particular, the popul
  
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• Can we have a bipartisan energy policy? – Australian politics live podcast

  02-03-2017 20:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Katharine Murphy and Gabrielle Chan look at the week in politics and how Labour has dominated the conversation about penalty rates. They are joined by Labor’s Pat Conroy and the Nationals’ Andrew Broad, both members of a new inquiry into modernising Australia’s power grid. We take a close look at energy policy and how members of opposing parties can find common ground in one of the most bitterly partisan of all areas of political debate• Nationals MP calls for ‘real
  
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• Shale gas firm Cuadrilla brands anti-fracking activists 'irresponsible'

  02-03-2017 19:35 via theguardian.com
  
  CEO Francis Egan complains about protesters ‘harassing’ contractors supplying Preston New Road site in Lancashire The chief executive of Cuadrilla, a leading fracking company, has complained at what he calls intimidation and harassment by “irresponsible” activists protesting at a shale gas site the firm is constructing in Lancashire. Related: Cuadrilla starts work on Lancashire fracking siteContinue reading...
  
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• Can Impossible Foods and its plant burgers take on the meat industry?

  02-03-2017 19:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Impossible Foods is on the cusp of big things. But as the company lines up its first burger chain, it still needs to show it can convert the meat-loving massesI sat down to have my first Impossible Burger, the plant-based meat substitute that has received a lot of press and nice reviews from high profile chefs and their customers. My burger, topped with caramelized onion, dill pickles, lettuce and a special sauce, was cooked medium rare. It looked like a conventional burger, complete with the pi
  
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• UN climate chief unable to secure meeting with US state department

  02-03-2017 18:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Global governance expert decries ‘snub’ of Patricia Espinosa as Trump administration considers whether to pull out of Paris climate dealThe UN’s climate chief has been unable to secure a meeting with the US state department as Donald Trump’s administration mulls whether to withdraw the US from the international climate effort.
  Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is currently in the US and has sought a meeting w
  
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• Crocodile shark washes up on Devon beach

  02-03-2017 18:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Experts are puzzled how the shark, normally found near equator, could have reached UK A crocodile shark, a marine creature normally found in deep tropical waters, has been discovered washed up on a beach in Devon.A family found the shark at Hope Cove beach on the south coast and, thinking it was still alive, braved its sharp teeth to try to return it to the water before realising it was dead. Continue reading...
  
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• Ocean Acidification

  02-03-2017 18:09 via feedproxy.google.com
  International research team reports ocean acidification spreading rapidly in Arctic Ocean in area and depthOcean acidification (OA) is spreading rapidly in the western Arctic Ocean in both area and depth, according to new interdisciplinary research reported in Nature Climate Change by a team of international collaborators, including University of Delaware professor Wei-Jun Cai.The research shows that, between the 1990s and 2010, acidified waters expanded northward approx
  
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• Seeds of Commerce: Saving Native Plants in the Heart of Appalachia

  02-03-2017 16:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  In southern Appalachia, botanist Joe-Ann McCoy is collecting the seeds of thousands of native plant species threatened by climate change. But in this job-scarce region, she also hopes to attract an herbal products company to cultivate the area’s medicinal plants.
  
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• Research reveals air pollution can alter the effectiveness of antibiotics and increases the potential of disease

  02-03-2017 16:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  Leicester research reveals the impact of black carbon on bacteria in the respiratory tract
  
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• Cigarette smoke curbs lung's self-healing

  02-03-2017 16:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  Smoke from cigarettes blocks self-healing processes in the lungs and consequently can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, partner in the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), and their international colleagues have reported this in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
  
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• Aging faces could increase security risks

  02-03-2017 16:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  Images of our faces exist in numerous important databases – driver’s license, passport, law enforcement, employment – all to accurately identify us. But can these images continue to identify us as we age?
  
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• Agrihoods and camouflage solar: the best green innovations of the week

  02-03-2017 16:09
  
  In a week that highlighted the divide between political and private sector sustainability commitments, edie rounds up the low-carbon, resource efficient technologies and innovations that could drive business agendas in the future.
  
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• Rolls-Royce and Nestlé explore the benefits of flexible energy generation

  02-03-2017 15:53
  
  Flexible energy generation, led by battery storage and demand response measures, is a route being "actively explored" by energy-intensive multinational firms Rolls-Royce and Nestlé, the energy managers of the respective companies confirmed earlier this week.
  
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• Environmentalists urge French bank not to finance Texas fracking project

  02-03-2017 15:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Activist points to ‘hypocrisy’ in BNP Paribas’s involvement in south Texas export terminal, given bank’s claimed commitment to the environmentEnvironmental groups have called on a French bank not to help finance a fracked-gas export terminal planned for south Texas. Continue reading...
  
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• David Attenborough attacks plan for Borneo bridge that threatens orangutans

  02-03-2017 15:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Endangered pygmy elephants and orangutans threatened by scheme for Kinabatangan Wildlife SanctuaryDavid Attenborough and Steve Backshall have joined conservationists and charities asking officials in Borneo to reconsider a bridge that threatens one of the last sanctuaries of the rare pygmy elephant.There are now just 1,500 of the world’s smallest pachyderm, according to WWF, and about 300 of them make their home in the 26,000-hectare Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, in the state of Sabah i
  
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• David Attenborough attacks plan for Borneo bridge

  02-03-2017 15:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Endangered pygmy elephants and orangutans threatened by scheme for Kinabatangan Wildlife SanctuaryDavid Attenborough and Steve Backshall have joined conservationists and charities asking the Borneo government to reconsider a bridge that threatens one of the last sanctuaries of the rare pygmy elephant.There are now just 1,500 of the world’s smallest pachyderm, according to WWF, and about 300 of them make their home in the 26,000-hectare Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, in the state of Sabah
  
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• UBC team develops mobile sensors to monitor urban greenhouse gas emissions

  02-03-2017 15:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  Cities play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change, but directly measuring emissions remains a challenge.
  
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• New USGS Streamgages Provide Flood Monitoring for Additional Philadelphia Neighborhoods

  02-03-2017 14:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  Philadelphia communities along the Schuylkill River and Darby Creek now have new tools to help inform residents of impending flooding. The U.S. Geological Survey recently installed three new streamgages in Manayunk, Eastwick, and downtown near 30th St., which will monitor water levels, and provide vital data used by emergency managers and flood forecasters to help protect lives and property.
  
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• Fly-tipping clean-up costs £50m as cases in England rise for third year in a row

  02-03-2017 14:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners say cuts to waste collection services have increased the problem of illegal dumpingFly-tipping is on the rise again, with the number of incidents up for the third year in a row, official figures show. Councils across England reported 936,090 cases of fly-tipping in 2015/2016, up 4% on the previous year, the data from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) reveals.Continue reading...
  
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• Danone and Nestlé Waters pursue 100% bio-based plastic bottle rollout

  02-03-2017 12:26
  
  Multi-national food company Danone has teamed up with the bottled water division of the Nestlé Group and a Californian start-up company to launch a new alliance aimed at commercialising 100% bio-based plastic bottles.
  
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• Land Securities is world's first property firm to have science-based targets approved

  02-03-2017 12:00
  
  The UK's largest listed commercial real estate company has today (2 March) announced the approval of its science-based target to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050.
  
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• Burger King linked to alleged South American deforestation practices

  02-03-2017 11:17
  
  The world's second largest burger chain, Burger King, has been accused of fuelling deforestation in Brazil and Bolivia through its "seeming unwillingness" to address practices linked to key soybean suppliers in South America.
  
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• Mysteries of elephant sleep revealed

  02-03-2017 11:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  African elephants living in the wild sleep for the shortest time of any mammal, according to a study.
  
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• Indonesia pledges $1bn a year to curb ocean waste

  02-03-2017 10:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Only China dumps more plastic in the ocean than Indonesia. But by 2025, the world’s largest archipelago aims to reduce marine waste by 70%Indonesia has pledged up to $1bn a year to dramatically reduce the amount of plastic and other waste products polluting its waters. The announcement was made by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime affairs at last week’s 2017 World Oceans Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali.Pandjaitan told delegates at the conference t
  
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• Plastic pollution blights Bay of Bengal – in pictures

  02-03-2017 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In India, 6,000 tonnes of plastic waste lies uncollected every day. Some of this washes up in Tamil Nadu state, where it pollutes and contaminates the food and water of communities living along the Bay of BengalAll photographs by Jacques de Lannoy Continue reading...
  
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• Huge Large Hadron Collider experiment gets 'heart transplant'

  02-03-2017 09:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  One of the Large Hadron Collider's huge experiments has been given what's described as a "heart transplant".
  
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• Stuttgart residents sue mayor for 'bodily harm' caused by air pollution

  02-03-2017 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  To highlight the dangerous air quality in the German city, which breached EU limits 25 times in January, two neighbours lodged a criminal complaint against city officials. Popular resistance to Stuttgart’s pollution problem is growingOn a frosty Friday evening at the end of January, after her usual walk around her central Stuttgart neighbourhood, Susanne Jallow felt an unusual cough and irritation in her throat.Jallow, 54, lives in Neckartor, an area chock-a-block with residential building
  
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• Climate scientists say likelihood of extreme summers surging due to global warming

  02-03-2017 08:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Report’s authors say Sydney unprepared for knock-on effects of a significant increase in average summer temperaturesNew South Wales, which has just experienced its hottest summer on record, is 50 times more likely to experience another similarly hot summer and 10 times more likely to experience extremely hot days under climate change, according to a group of Australian climate scientists.The mean temperature in Sydney was 2.8C above average in December, January, and February, according to
  
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• Barnaby Joyce says Coalition won't help Clive Palmer build new coal-fired power plant

  02-03-2017 07:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Deputy prime minister says businessman has ‘enough on his plate’ without building new plant in the Galilee basinThe deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, says he’s not interested in giving the businessman and former politician Clive Palmer government assistance to build a new coal-fired power plant in the Galilee basin.
  Joyce told Sky News on Thursday he remained interested in helping a commercial party build a new coal-fired power station in Australia – but he was not in
  
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• Hotbeds of diversity at the bottom of the garden

  02-03-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Flies, worms, slugs, woodlice, centipedes, moulds – the compost bin throbs with lifeSeveral times each week I take vegetable peelings from the kitchen to the three compost recycling bins at the bottom of the garden. Even in winter, they are hotbeds of biodiversity. Today, as I lift the lid of the newest bin, I am greeted by a blizzard of minute moth-flies (Clogmia albipunctata) that have bred in the film of water covering decaying garden weeds and autumn leaves.Continue reading...
  
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• $5bn used to safeguard Murray-Darling from drought largely in vain, says study

  02-03-2017 04:07 via theguardian.com
  
  ANU’s centre for water economics says ‘no discernible impact in reduced water use on a per-hectare basis’More than $5bn used for reforms to safeguard the Murray-Darling river system from drought has been largely in vain, new research has found.About $3bn of taxpayers’ funds used for improving farm irrigation had been a boon to private individuals but led to no cut in water use from the start of the last drought crisis, according to the Australian National University study
  
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• Nature report should be released now - MPs

  02-03-2017 01:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The government's long-delayed 25-year plan for improving nature in England should be published immediately, MPs say.
  
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• Lasers reveal how Big Ben 'bongs'

  02-03-2017 01:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists use lasers to analyse how the sound of Big Ben's "bongs" is created.
  
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• Humans help cook up mineral bounty

  02-03-2017 01:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists identify 208 new minerals that owe their existence wholly or in part to humans.
  
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