Environment news

• How an Indigenous renewable energy alliance aims to cut power costs and disadvantage

  16-03-2017 23:53 via theguardian.com
  
  First Nations lobby group will support remote communities looking to make transition – and tackle climate changeLike so many of the Indigenous communities dotted across the Australian continent, the remote communities in north-west New South Wales are struggling. “These are not happy places,” says the Euahlayi elder Ghillar Michael Anderson.Many of the 300 or so residents of Anderson’s hometown of Goodooga rely on welfare, he says. Exorbitant electricity bills – up
  
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• Europe's renewable energy revolution

  16-03-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  A tunnel under construction beneath a Norwegian mountain is just one link in a new grid that will cross national bordersMore than 2km down a dark tunnel deep inside a Norwegian mountain, a drilling machine is boring out holes in the rock. It’s part of a major project that will connect Britain to Norway’s huge hydroelectric power supplies, passing power lines through the mountain near Kvilldal, southwest Norway, before laying the world’s longest undersea power cable, 450km long,
  
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• Bald eagles: scientists decry overturn of ban that would save American symbol

  16-03-2017 21:01 via theguardian.com
  
  The national bird is threatened by toxic bullets that wind up in the animals it eats, but the Trump administration overturned a rule to stop itHis head twisted almost upside down and his body all but paralyzed, the bald eagle sat on its haunches, talons clenching, while two humans neared to put him in a cage. They could not save the bird from lead. The eagle was the third this year to die from lead poisoning at the Blue Mountain Wildlife center, in north-east Oregon, where Lynn Tompkins has help
  
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• NASA Satellite Identifies Global Ammonia "Hotspots"

  16-03-2017 20:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  The first global, long-term satellite study of airborne ammonia gas has revealed “hotspots” of the pollutant over four of the world’s most productive agricultural regions. The results of the study, conducted using data from NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite, could inform the development of strategies to control pollution from ammonia and ammonia byproducts in Earth’s agricultural areas.A University of Maryland-led t
  
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• The Carbon Dioxide Loop

  16-03-2017 20:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  The oceans are great at absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, but when their deep waters are brought to the surface, the oceans themselves can be a source of this prevalent greenhouse gas.Wind patterns together with the Earth’s rotation drive deep ocean water — and the CO2 it sequesters — upward, replacing surface water moving offshore. A process known as upwelling, it occurs on the west coasts of continents. And it’s part of a never-ending loop in which
  
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• Is Spring Getting Longer? UNH Research Points to a Lengthening "Vernal Window"

  16-03-2017 19:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  With the first day of spring around the corner, temperatures are beginning to rise, ice is melting, and the world around us is starting to blossom. Scientists sometimes refer to this transition from winter to the growing season as the “vernal window,” and a new study led by the University of New Hampshire shows this window may be opening earlier and possibly for longer.  “Historically, the transition into spring is comparatively shorter than other seasons,” said Alex
  
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• Man found guilty of killing one of Britain’s rarest butterflies

  16-03-2017 19:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Magistrates told that Phillip Cullen was spotted chasing large blues with a net at Gloucestershire reserve
  A man has been found guilty of unlawfully collecting and killing specimens of one of Britain’s rarest butterflies, the large blue.Phillip Cullen, 57, was spotted armed with a child’s shrimping net chasing the insects at a nature reserve in Gloucestershire and was seen the next day at another prime location for the butterfly in Somerset.Continue reading...
  
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• Natural measures to prevent floods are not a 'silver bullet'

  16-03-2017 18:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  Measures such as river restoration and tree planting aim to restore processes that have been affected by human activities like farming, land management and house-building. Natural flood management is an area of increasing interest for policy makers, but its implementation can present a complex balancing act between the needs of different groups, including the public, farmers and land owners. Mixed messages about their effectiveness and the scale needed to implement natural flood management
  
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• Best photos of the day: the Netherlands election and starry skies

  16-03-2017 17:52 via theguardian.com
  
  The Guardian’s picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world, including the election in the Netherlands, a cunning flower mimic and a twinkly night Continue reading...
  
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• Tech firms called upon to advance e-waste transparency

  16-03-2017 17:47
  
  Major tech firms including Apple and Dell have been urged to improve transparency in electronics recycling supply chains by the global toxic trade watchdog organisation.
  
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• Trump budget would gut EPA programs tackling climate change and pollution

  16-03-2017 17:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Trump’s ‘America First’ proposal would cut funding by nearly a third to the Environmental Protection Agency, which is ‘already on a starvation diet’Dozens of programs that deal with climate change, pollution clean-ups and energy efficiency would be wiped out by by the Trump administration’s budget, which seeks to demolish parts of the Environmental Protection Agency.The regulator’s funding would be cut by nearly a third under Trump’s “America
  
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• North Face widow Tompkins donates land for Chile parks

  16-03-2017 17:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Chile signs a historic deal with Kristine McDivitt Tompkins to create a "network of national parks”.
  
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• Outwitting climate change with a plant 'dimmer'?

  16-03-2017 16:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  Plants possess molecular mechanisms that prevent them from blooming in winter. Once the cold of win-ter has passed, they are deactivated. However, if it is still too cold in spring, plants adapt their blooming behavior accordingly. Scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have discovered genetic changes for this adaptive behavior. In light of the temperature changes resulting from climate change, this may come in useful for securing the production of food in the future.
  
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• Mount Etna: BBC crew caught up in volcano blast

  16-03-2017 16:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Volcano watchers suffer cuts, bruises and burns as an explosion pelts them with hot rocks and steam.
  
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• 'Boaty McBoatface' loaded for Friday departure

  16-03-2017 16:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The UK's favourite yellow submarine is set to leave port for the Antarctic
  
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• Populism can be stopped, says jubilant Dutch GreenLeft leader

  16-03-2017 16:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Jesse ‘the Jessiah’ Klaver celebrates Netherlands poll wins with pro-refugee message ahead of possible coalition dealIt is far too early to say whether Jesse Klaver’s GreenLeft will be a party of government for the first time in its history. But for the youngest-ever leader of a political party in the Netherlands, it was not a bad election.The leftwing ecologists were the big winners in Wednesday’s poll, leaping from four MPs to 14 in the 150-seat parliament, topping the
  
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• Climate change: Biofuels 'could limit jet contrails'

  16-03-2017 15:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Chase planes flying behind a jet are providing new insights into aircraft pollution.
  
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• NASA Study Confirms Biofuels Reduce Jet Engine Pollution

  16-03-2017 15:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  Using biofuels to help power jet engines reduces particle emissions in their exhaust by as much as 50 to 70 percent, in a new study conclusion that bodes well for airline economics and Earth’s environment.The findings are the result of a cooperative international research program led by NASA and involving agencies from Germany and Canada, and are detailed in a study published in the journal Nature.
  
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• Man accused of killing rare butterflies 'was seen with net at reserve'

  16-03-2017 14:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Magistrates told that Phillip Cullen was spotted chasing large blues at Daneway Banks in GloucestershireA man used a child’s net to illegally capture specimens of Britain’s rarest butterfly, the large blue, magistrates have been told. Phillip Cullen, 57, was allegedly spotted chasing the large blue at a nature reserve in Gloucestershire and was seen the next day at another location for the butterfly in Somerset.Continue reading...
  
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• NSF awards $5.6 million to establish new arctic Long-Term Ecological Research site

  16-03-2017 14:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made a $5.6 million, five-year grant to establish a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site along the northern Alaskan coast that will focus on the interactions between land and ocean that shape coastal ecosystems in the Arctic over different time scales.Researchers at the Beaufort Sea Lagoons LTER site will study food webs, which support large-scale coastal fisheries and more than 150 species of migratory birds and waterfowl. Long-term changes along t
  
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• MPs to inspect role of electric vehicles in UK Industrial Strategy

  16-03-2017 14:01
  
  MPs from the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Select Committeehave today (16 March) launched a consultation into the role of electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK's low-carbon transition.
  
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• Best photos of the day: An orchid mantis and starry skies

  16-03-2017 13:42 via theguardian.com
  
  The Guardian’s picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world, including a cunning flower mimic and a twinkly night Continue reading...
  
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• Republicans to challenge Trump over climate change

  16-03-2017 13:31
  
  As US President Donald Trump prepares to rollback emissions standards for vehicles and slash the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 17 Republican members of the House of Representatives have called for an economic policy that combats climate change.
  
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• Germany to push for carbon price at G20

  16-03-2017 13:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Germany will use its G20 Presidency to nudge world leaders towards a global price on carbon, say officials.
  
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• Eating healthier food could reduce greenhouse gas emissions

  16-03-2017 12:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  You are what you eat, as the saying goes, and while good dietary choices boost your own health, they also could improve the health care system and even benefit the planet. Healthier people mean not only less disease but also reduced greenhouse gas emissions from health care. As it turns out, some relatively small diet tweaks could add up to significant inroads in addressing climate change.
  
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• Greenpeace slams 'jaw-dropping' inaction on marine pollution from soft drinks firms

  16-03-2017 12:26
  
  A new Greenpeace UK report has condemned the "woeful lack of action" by the soft drinks industry to prevent ocean plastic pollution, as figures show the world's top six brands use a combined average of just 6.6% recycled plastic in their bottles.
  
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• World's largest investor to vote out directors failing to act on climate risks and mitigation

  16-03-2017 11:49
  
  The world's largest investor has warned that high-level directors could be voted out of companies that are failing to mitigate climate-related risks posed to individual firms.
  
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• Bald eagle population threatened by lead poisoning, US scientists warn

  16-03-2017 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The famous bird has rebounded across America, but many fear that progress is threatened by lead ammunition that ends up in carrion the eagles eatHis head twisted almost upside down and his body all but paralyzed, the bald eagle sat on its haunches, talons clenching, while two humans neared to put him in a cage. They could not save the bird from lead. The eagle was the third this year to die from lead poisoning at the Blue Mountain Wildlife center, in north-east Oregon, where Lynn Tompkins has he
  
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• Paichit – the baby elephant saved from a palm oil plantation in Indonesia

  16-03-2017 08:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Orphaned at a few months old and nursed back to health by a local wildlife centre, Paichit’s story has serious implications for critically endangered Sumatran elephantsPushing on 400 kilograms, baby Paichit knows when it’s feeding time.He lets out an appreciative bellow, a rumbling baby elephant purr from his patch in the Sumatran jungle, as soon as his mahout (keeper) Julkarnaini approaches bucket in hand. Continue reading...
  
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• Energy storage set to invigorate the Isles of Scilly

  16-03-2017 08:00
  
  A £10.8m project on the Isles of Scilly will test how electric vehicles (EVs) and domestic batteries can integrate into low-carbon energy systems that reduce electricity costs and promote the use of renewables.
  
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• Malcolm Turnbull says Snowy Hydro plan will outdo South Australian battery storage

  16-03-2017 07:22 via theguardian.com
  
  PM says plan would turn Snowy Hydro into energy storage system but Labor says proposal leaves unanswered questionsMalcolm Turnbull has used his expansion plans for the Snowy Hydro to try to outdo South Australia on battery storage, saying it would provide 20 times the capacity of the battery system proposed by the premier, Jay Weatherill.The prime minister visited the Snowy Hydro power station on Thursday to spruik the benefits of the expansion plan on the same day his energy minister, Josh Fryd
  
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• UK climate targets 'will raise household energy bills by £100 in a decade'

  16-03-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  But cost of green policies will be more than offset by savings in energy efficiency, say climate advisers The cost of supporting new windfarms and nuclear power stations to meet the UK’s carbon targets will add nearly £100 to the average household energy bill by the end of the next decade, according to a government adviser.But the Committee on Climate Change said it expected the increase to be more than offset by savings as people switched to more efficient fridge freezers, LED bulbs
  
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• UK climate targets will raise household energy bills by £100 in a decade

  16-03-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  But cost of green policies will be more than offset by savings in energy efficiency, say climate advisers The cost of supporting new windfarms and nuclear power stations to meet the UK’s carbon targets will add nearly £100 to the average household energy bill by the end of the next decade, according to a government adviser.But the Committee on Climate Change said it expected the increase to be more than offset by savings as people switched to more efficient fridge freezers, LED bulbs
  
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• Record number of birds illegally killed on British military base, says RSPB

  16-03-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  More than 800,000 songbirds were killed last autumn say charities calling for UK government to help embattled military police at the Cyprus baseMore than 800,000 songbirds, including blackcaps, robins and garden warblers, are estimated to have been illegally killed last autumn on a British military base in Cyprus.New research by the RSPB and BirdLife Cyprus identified a record number of illegal and virtually invisible “mist” nets set to trap migrating birds on British territory in th
  
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• On the shore, casualties of a winter storm

  16-03-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire Dead man’s fingers and a lumpsucker are marooned in seaweed along the strandlineAt the bottom of the cliff, a two-minute walk from the high tide line, there is a small stone-built mortuary, constructed in 1881 and formerly the temporary resting place for the bodies of shipwrecked sailors washed up on the sands.Today, by morbid coincidence, the strandline was littered with dead man’s fingers, Alcyonium digitatum. These soft corals live in deep wate
  
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• Hans Rosling, population expert: Five last thoughts

  16-03-2017 02:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  In his last BBC interview, the statistician highlighted five key ways demographics are shaping the world.
  
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• No let-up in Cyprus bird poaching

  16-03-2017 02:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Record numbers of songbirds are still being killed on a British military base in Cyprus.
  
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• Jay Weatherill gives Josh Frydenberg a serve at bizarre media conference – video

  16-03-2017 02:20 via theguardian.com
  
  The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, unloads on the federal energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, at Frydenberg’s own media conference in Adelaide. Frydenberg who was scheduled to launch a federally funded battery storage scheme, was not expecting Weatherill at the event. The two hosted a joint press conference where Frydenberg accused the state of selfishly trying to ‘go it alone’ and Weatherhill of ‘crash-tackling’ his event. Weatherhill hit back claiming the
  
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• The captivating images that celebrate science

  16-03-2017 01:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The art of science - captivating scientific images from the 2017 Wellcome Image Awards.
  
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• Captivating science

  16-03-2017 01:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The art of science - captivating scientific images from the 2017 Wellcome Image Awards.
  
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• Opening the skies to children in Kenya

  16-03-2017 01:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Astronomer Susan Murabana takes a telescope round Kenya to enthuse schoolchildren.
  
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• Think again: Will circular runways ever take off?

  16-03-2017 01:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Could circular runways be the future of air travel? Aviation expert Henk Hesselink of the Netherlands Aerospace Centre believes so.
  
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• Circular runways

  16-03-2017 01:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Could circular runways be the future of air travel? Aviation expert Henk Hesselink of the Netherlands Aerospace Centre believes so.
  
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• Low carbon drive 'cuts household bills'

  16-03-2017 01:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Extra cost of wind and solar power outweighed by energy saving, says report.
  
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• South Australia shows up the federal government ... and rightwing commentary | Jason Wilson

  16-03-2017 00:19 via theguardian.com
  
  The reaction to the South Australian energy plan from the federal government and rightwing media shows just how out of touch with public opinion they are
  The South Australian government announced on Tuesday that it would address market failure with the time-honoured measure of government intervention. In addition, the Weatherill government has chosen to continue to rely extensively on renewable energy. Together, these themes in the government’s announcement have provoked the kind of howlin
  
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