Environment news

• Female earwig a model mother: Country diary 100 years ago

  05-03-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 6 March 1917How the earwigs, beetle larvæ, and earthworms must hate the Food Controller! When, quite in the fashion, I was breaking up some fresh ground in my small garden, I caused great annoyance and considerable injury to numerous worms and insects which no doubt thought that they were in safe winter quarters. It was the earwigs that I specially noticed, and I was almost sorry for them, for, like birds, they were sitting on their eggs.
  
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• Big Australian banks invest $7bn more in fossil fuels than renewables, says report

  05-03-2017 20:13 via theguardian.com
  
  ANZ, NAB, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac provided three times more for non-renewable than clean energy projects in 2016, says Market ForcesAustralia’s big four banks invested three times as much in global fossil fuels than clean energy in 2016, despite pledging to help Australia transition to a low carbon economy.The banks provided a combined $10bn to projects around the world that expanded non-renewable energy, according to finance group Market Forces.Continue reading...
  
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• Liver transplant pioneer Thomas Starzl dies aged 90

  05-03-2017 19:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The surgeon carried out the first successful liver transplant in 1967 and helped normalise the surgery.
  
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• This boy's backpack could change you

  05-03-2017 18:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  14-year-old Logan is helping monitor his city's air - and the results may change your habits.
  
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• The rise of biodynamic farming: a return to 'the way farmers farmed for millennia'

  05-03-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Biodynamic foods are more nutritious than conventionally farmed crops – but critics are questioning biodynamic farming’s ability to feed the masses When John Chester, a filmmaker from California, quit his job to become a farmer, he didn’t do it out of a desire to “feed the world”. Instead, he says: “I’m trying to feed my neighbors – and if everyone did that, we would be able to replicate this.”He is referring to Apricot Lane Farms, a 213-acre
  
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• Biodynamic farming is on the rise – and this Californian farm is embracing it

  05-03-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  National retailers like Whole Foods are stocking more biodynamic brands – but critics are questioning biodynamic farming’s ability to feed the massesWhen John Chester, a filmmaker from California, quit his job to become a farmer, he didn’t do it out of a desire to “feed the world”. Instead, he says: “I’m trying to feed my neighbors – and if everyone did that, we would be able to replicate this.”He is referring to Apricot Lane Farms, a 213-acr
  
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• Trump golf resort and Scottish planners clash over the environment

  05-03-2017 13:50 via theguardian.com
  
  US president’s Scotland development is under fire as it seeks to expand its boutique hotel and ditch its ecological monitoring groupThe Trump Organization is facing a new battle with Scottish planners and conservationists over the protection of rare dunes and wildlife at its Aberdeenshire golf resort.Trump International Golf Course Scotland has challenged a key part of the planning permission it won for the resort in 2008 as it pushes ahead with plans for a second 18-hole golf course and a
  
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• China's premier unveils smog-busting plan to 'make skies blue again'

  05-03-2017 13:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Li Keqiang promises to intensify battle against air pollution as he unveils series of measures at annual people’s congressThe Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, has promised to step up his country’s battle against deadly smog, telling an annual political congress: “We will make our skies blue again.”
  China’s cities have become synonymous with choking air pollution in recent years, which is blamed for up to 1 million premature deaths a year.Continue reading...
  
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• SSE customers charged up to £33,000 a day by faulty smart meters

  05-03-2017 09:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Energy supplier apologises and launches investigation into devices after customers tweet company about soaring billsShocked customers of a major energy company have received an apology after malfunctioning smart meters said they would be charged up to £33,000 for one day’s power. SSE, one of the “big six”, said it had launched an urgent investigation into the errant devices, one of which told a customer they had exceeded their daily budget by nearly 3m%.Continue reading..
  
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• The eco guide to female-friendly shopping

  05-03-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Choose the right brands if you want to promote women’s rightsEthical shoppers like me want to think that they always have the sisterhood top of their list when they shop. But in practice I find most can rattle off the five freedoms of animal welfare, but are pretty hazy on enshrined women’s rights, like the right to hold elected and appointed government positions.Even ethical shoppers are often pretty hazy on women's rights Continue reading...
  
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• What does air pollution do to our bodies?

  05-03-2017 01:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  David Shukman examines the effect that air pollution has on our bodies.
  
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• How bad is air pollution for our health?

  05-03-2017 01:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  David Shukman examines the effect that air pollution has on our bodies.
  
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• Green campaigners call for land ministry to halt the ‘erosion of the countryside’

  05-03-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Peers, academics and architects urge unified approach to planning to improve quality of lifeRural campaigners and green activists have called for a new “department of land use” to prevent “piecemeal erosion of the countryside” caused by a lack of joined-up thinking in government.A group of former ministers, academics, architects and engineers assembled by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) has called for a unified approach to dealing with issues such
  
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