Environment news

• EU leads attacks on Trump's rollback of Obama climate policy

  28-03-2017 23:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Europe poised to take baton from US as leader in global efforts to fight climate change, with America’s commitment to Paris accords at riskThe European Union has led criticism of Donald Trump’s effort to unravel Barack Obama’s measures to combat climate change, suggesting that Europe will now take the lead in global efforts.
  The US president signed an executive order on Tuesday aimed at eliminating the clean power plan, Obama’s landmark policy to set limits on the amount
  
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• As sea level rises, much of Honolulu and Waikiki vulnerable to groundwater inundation

  28-03-2017 22:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  New research from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa reveals a large part of the the heavily urbanized area of Honolulu and Waikīkī is at risk of groundwater inundation—flooding that occurs as groundwater is lifted above the ground surface due to sea level rise. Shellie Habel, lead author of the study and doctoral student in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), and colleagues develop
  
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• Forests fight global warming in ways more important than previously understood

  28-03-2017 22:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  Forests play a complex role in keeping the planet cool, one that goes far beyond the absorption of carbon dioxide, new research has found.Trees also impact climate by regulating the exchange of water and energy between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere, an important influence that should be considered as policymakers contemplate efforts to conserve forested land, said the authors of an international study that appears in the journal Nature Climate Change.
  
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• Flow battery based on PNNL chemistry commissioned

  28-03-2017 22:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  Officials are celebrating the installation of the world's largest containerized vanadium flow battery storage system by capacity, which uses electrolyte chemistry developed at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
  
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• Trump rolls back Obama-era climate regulations – video

  28-03-2017 22:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to undo a slew of Obama-era climate change regulations that his administration says is hobbling oil drillers and coalminers, a move environmental groups have vowed to take to court. The decree’s main target is former President Barack Obama’s clean power plan that required states to slash carbon emissions from power plants – a critical element in helping the United States meet its commitments to a global climate change accord rea
  
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• Impact of job losses in Hazelwood may outweigh health benefits, AMA says

  28-03-2017 21:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Australian Medical Association says health impacts of unemployment and blackouts need to be considered when closing brown-coal power plants The head of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Michael Gannon, has said the health benefits of closing down brown-coal power plants need to be considered against the health impacts of unemployment and blackouts.The Hazelwood power station will permanently close on Friday, affecting 500 staff and 300 contractors who will lose their jobs. Hazelwood, in Vic
  
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• Alien intelligence: the extraordinary minds of octopuses and other cephalopods

  28-03-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After a startling encounter with a cuttlefish, Australian philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith set out to explore the mysterious lives of cephalopods. He was left asking: why do such smart, optimistic creatures live such a short time?Inches above the seafloor of Sydney’s Cabbage Tree Bay, with the proximity made possible by several millimetres of neoprene and an oxygen tank, I’m just about eyeball to eyeball with this creature: an Australian giant cuttlefish.Even allowing for the magnifyi
  
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• Trump has launched a blitzkrieg in the wars on science and Earth’s climate | Dana Nuccitelli

  28-03-2017 20:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Trump’s anti-science budget, anti-climate executive orders, and general disdain for scientific expertise come at a bad time
  Today, Trump signed executive orders taking aim at America’s climate policies. On the heels of a report finding that the world needs to halve its carbon pollution every decade to avoid dangerous climate change, Trump’s order would instead increase America’s carbon pollution, to the exclusive benefit of the fossil fuel industry. Continue reading...
  
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• New population of rare tigers found in eastern Thailand

  28-03-2017 19:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Camera traps caught images of the critically endangered Indochinese tigers in eastern Thailand.
  
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• UK breaks solar energy record on sunny March weekend

  28-03-2017 19:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Amount of electricity demanded by homes and businesses one afternoon was lower than it was during night for first time everLast weekend’s sunny weather was not only good for beers, barbecues and bees, but also drove solar power to break a new UK record.For the first time ever, the amount of electricity demanded by homes and businesses in the afternoon on Saturday was lower than it was in the night, because solar panels on rooftops and in fields cut demand so much. Continue reading...
  
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• Victory for Japanese nuclear industry as high court quashes injunction

  28-03-2017 19:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Takahama reactors to restart within a month despite Greenpeace saying they have serious unresolved safety issuesJapan’s struggling nuclear power industry has won a victory against a landmark legal injunction that halted the running of two reactors.
  Six years on from the triple meltdown at Fukushima, the industry faces concerted opposition from residents and some officials due to lingering concerns about safety. Continue reading...
  
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• Menstrual cycle recreated 'in a dish'

  28-03-2017 18:46 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists have made a mini working replica of the female reproductive tract to experiment on.
  
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• ExoMars: Rover scientists to study Mawrth Vallis option

  28-03-2017 17:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Europe is going to investigate a second site on Mars - called Mawrth Vallis - as a possible destination to send its 2021 rover.
  
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• UK breaks new solar energy record on sunny March weekend

  28-03-2017 17:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Amount of electricity demanded by homes and businesses one afternoon was lower than it was during night for first time everLast weekend’s sunny weather was not only good for beers, barbecues and bees, but also drove solar power to break a new UK record.For the first time ever, the amount of electricity demanded by homes and businesses in the afternoon on Saturday was lower than it was in the night, because solar panels on rooftops and in fields cut demand so much. Continue reading...
  
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• Mustard seeds without mustard flavor: new robust oilseed crop can resist global warming

  28-03-2017 16:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  BREAKTHROUGH - University of Copenhagen and the global player Bayer CropScience have successfully developed a new oilseed crop that is much more resistant to heat, drought and diseases than oilseed rape. The breakthrough is so big that it will feature as cover story of the April issue of Nature Biotechnology, the most prestigious journal for biotechnology research.
  
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• The Economic Case for Wind and Solar Energy in Africa

  28-03-2017 16:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  To meet skyrocketing demand for electricity, African countries may have to triple their energy output by 2030. While hydropower and fossil fuel power plants are favored approaches in some quarters, a new assessment by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that wind and solar can be economically and environmentally competitive options and can contribute significantly to the rising demand.
  
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• The Decarbonization of the Global Energy System

  28-03-2017 16:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  Climate change has dominated the news over the past 15 months. First, nearly 200 nations signed a historic accord in Paris during the COP21 climate talks in December 2015. The signatories to the accord, including the United States, the countries of the European Union, China and India, agreed to do their part to cut carbon emissions, and the Paris agreement entered into force months ahead of schedule. 
  
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• VIDEO: Inside Gatwick's 'world-first' waste management plant

  28-03-2017 15:50
  
  Gatwick's newly opened £3.8m waste processing plant takes the airport to brave new heights for sustainable aviation. Join edie on the ground for an exclusive behind-the-scenes video tour of this state-of-the-art facility, and read the full case study to find out how it works.
  
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• The Race to Rule the High-Flying Business of Satellite Imagery

  28-03-2017 15:48 via feedproxy.google.com
  In November 2016, satellites captured a curious change in the Tereneyskoe Forest farm in Primorsky Krai, Russia. Images showed the area transformed, from nice and leafy to stark and stumpy. An Earth-monitoring company called Astro Digital noticed the change first—and right away, it informed the World Wildlife Federation. Pixels of evidence in hand, the federation could start legal action to stop the deforestation.
  
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• Tetris used to prevent post-traumatic stress symptoms

  28-03-2017 15:43 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers have been able to demonstrate how the survivors of motor vehicle accidents have fewer such symptoms if they play Tetris in hospital within six hours of admission after also having been asked to recall their memory of the accident. The results of the study, which was conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet with colleagues at Oxford University and elsewhere, are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
  
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• Using a method from Wall Street to track slow slipping of Earth's crust

  28-03-2017 15:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Stock traders have long used specialized trackers to decide when to buy or sell a stock, or when the market is beginning to make a sudden swing.
  
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• Ministers called upon to deliver clarity for low-carbon building sector

  28-03-2017 15:25
  
  A coalition of organisations including Kingfisher and the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) is calling on the UK Government to publish a bold emissions reduction plan which addresses the policy gap in the low-carbon building sector.
  
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• Disappearing Beaches: Modeling Shoreline Change in Southern California

  28-03-2017 15:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  Using a newly-developed computer model called “CoSMoS-COAST” (Coastal Storm Modeling System – Coastal One-line Assimilated Simulation Tool) scientists predict that with limited human intervention, 31 to 67 percent of Southern California beaches may become completely eroded (up to existing coastal infrastructure or sea-cliffs) by the year 2100 under scenarios of sea-level rise of one to two meters.
  
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• Supplier scheme launches to cut air pollution and boost business prosperity in London's West End

  28-03-2017 14:45
  
  A new supplier scheme has launched across London's West End today (28 March), to save businesses money and improve the local air quality by reducing the number of vehicles entering the area each day.
  
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• Trump's order signals end of US dominance in climate change battle

  28-03-2017 14:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Trump’s climate blitzkrieg is unlikely to herald the end of civilization, but it risks US geopolitical dominance and could help ‘make China great again’Is Donald Trump’s determination to send US climate change policy back into the dark ages an “existential threat to the entire planet”, as the architect of many of Barack Obama’s green measures warns? Or is global momentum towards a cleaner, safer future “unstoppable”, as the UN’s climate
  
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• Supplier scheme to cut air pollution and boost business prosperity in London's West End

  28-03-2017 14:01
  
  A new supplier scheme has launched across London's West End today (28 March), to save businesses money and improve the local air quality by reducing the number of vehicles entering the area each day.
  
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• Vast majority of EU countries set to miss Paris Agreement goals, research finds

  28-03-2017 13:58
  
  Only three European countries are on course to achieve the Paris Agreement targets, according to research which ranks the UK in fifth position on its progress towards the landmark climate treaty.
  
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• Only Sweden, Germany and France are pursuing Paris climate goals, says study

  28-03-2017 13:58 via theguardian.com
  
  UK ranks fifth in table assessing EU actions to cut carbon emissions by 40%, with most countries gaining wiggle room via loopholesSweden, Germany and France are the only European countries pursuing environmental policies in line with promises made at the Paris climate conference, according to a new ranking study.
  The UK is in fifth position in the table which assesses policy actions taken by EU states to meet Europe’s pledge of a 40% cut in carbon emissions by 2030. Continue reading...
  
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• Only Sweden, Germany and France among EU are pursuing Paris climate goals, says study

  28-03-2017 13:58 via theguardian.com
  
  UK ranks fifth in table assessing EU actions to cut carbon emissions by 40%, with most countries gaining wiggle room via loopholesSweden, Germany and France are the only European countries pursuing environmental policies in line with promises made at the Paris climate conference, according to a new ranking study.
  The UK is in fifth position in the table which assesses policy actions taken by EU states to meet Europe’s pledge of a 40% cut in carbon emissions by 2030. Continue reading...
  
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• Apple triples supplier sites enrolled in energy efficiency programme

  28-03-2017 13:00
  
  Apple has tripled the number of supplier sites listed in its energy efficiency programme aimed at reducing onsite emissions, and has also introduced a "first-of-its-kind" risk assessment tool covering supply chain risks related to material sourcing, environmental impact and health and safety.
  
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• 'Fake science used to justify badger culls'

  28-03-2017 12:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A senior researcher claims ministers are using a flawed method for assessing badger numbers in the TB cull.
  
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• I am an Arctic researcher. Donald Trump is deleting my citations | Victoria Herrmann

  28-03-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  These politically motivated data deletions come at a time when the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global averageAs an Arctic researcher, I’m used to gaps in data. Just over 1% of US Arctic waters have been surveyed to modern standards. In truth, some of the maps we use today haven’t been updated since World War II. Navigating uncharted waters can prove difficult, but it comes with the territory of working in such a remote part of the world. Over the past two months though, I&
  
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• A future after oil and gas? Norway's fossil-free energy startups

  28-03-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Petrochemicals are still king in Norway, but the country has a growing renewables sectorØyvind Christian Rohn spent more than two decades in the oil and gas industry. But the 50-year-old from Skedsmo, near Oslo in Norway, has just set out on a new fossil-free career path: developing offshore solar power technology.His alternative energy startup, Ocean Sun has developed technology that will mean solar farms can float on the ocean surface, with their power transmitted back to land. Since ph
  
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• A future after oil and gas? Norway's fossil-free energy start-ups

  28-03-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Petrochemicals are still king in Norway, but the country has a growing renewables sectorØyvind Christian Rohn spent more than two decades in the oil and gas industry. But the 50-year-old from Skedsmo, near Oslo in Norway, has just set out on a new fossil-free career path: developing offshore solar power technology.His alternative energy startup, Ocean Sun has developed technology that will mean solar farms can float on the ocean surface, with their power transmitted back to land. Since ph
  
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• Trump begins tearing up Obama's years of progress on tackling climate change

  28-03-2017 06:40 via theguardian.com
  
  Fossil fuels to the fore as president signs orders to review clean power plan, lift ban on coal leases and discard expert thinking on true cost of carbon emissionsDonald Trump will launch a major assault on Barack Obama’s climate change legacy with a series of orders that undermine America’s commitment to the Paris agreement.Asked by the Guardian if Trump accepted the science of manmade climate change, a senior White House official replied: “Sure, yes, I guess, I think the pres
  
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• Northern views too good to miss

  28-03-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The B6305 Allendale road, Northumberland Colours and sights shift across the seasons, all seen from this one roadIt’s late morning and I’m driving from Allendale to Hexham along the straight road known as the Paise dyke. Cars bowl along here at speed, but to do that is to miss the far views and the birds. There’s always something to catch the eye. Ahead, on this warm March morning, starlings swarm like bees across the fields, a rushing wind as I drive under them, about 3,000 bi
  
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• Barnaby Joyce plan to log old forest will ‘drive animals to extinction’, says expert

  28-03-2017 06:20 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘Environmental vandalism’ proposal would put vulnerable species, including Leadbeater’s possum and Sooty owl, at risk of extinctionA proposal to release areas of protected Victorian old-growth forest for logging is “environmental vandalism crossed with bad economics” that would put a number of vulnerable species at risk of extinction, a leading Leadbeater’s possum expert has said. Professor David Lindenmayer, from the Australian National University, is recogni
  
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• 'Sightings' of extinct Tasmanian tiger prompt search in Queensland

  28-03-2017 04:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Eyewitness accounts of large, dog-like animals in state’s far north spur scientific hunt for thylacines, thought to have died out in 1936 “Plausible” possible sightings of a Tasmanian tiger in north Queensland have prompted scientists to undertake a search for the species thought to have died out more than 80 years ago.The last thylacine is thought to have died in Hobart zoo in 1936, and it is widely believed to have become extinct on mainland Australia at least 2,000 years ago
  
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• Windfarm settings triggered South Australian blackout, final energy report finds

  28-03-2017 04:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Protection mechanism in tornado-hit turbines caused drop in power that led to entire system being tripped, Aemo saysThe state-wide blackout in South Australia which prompted a national political storm over energy policy was caused by extreme weather, which triggered a cascading sequence resulting in the state separating from the national energy market, according to a final assessment from the Australian Energy Market Operator.
  The final report finds that the state’s windfarms rode out the
  
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• Snuffed out: the last days of Hazelwood power station – in pictures

  28-03-2017 04:06 via theguardian.com
  
  The Victorian plant will close down this week after half a century of electricity generation. The brown coal-powered station supplies more than 5% of Australia’s total energy demand – but is the country’s dirtiest and least efficient power plant, producing 3% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions. It will shut down entirely on 31 March after its owner, the power company Engie, decided it was uneconomical and unsafe to continue running the plant without major upgra
  
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• Gloom in the valley as Hazelwood fades to black | Gay Alcorn

  28-03-2017 04:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Gay Alcorn meets the people of the Latrobe Valley facing an uncertain future as the power station that has sustained their community closes after 52 years
  • Snuffed out: the last days of Hazelwood power station – in picturesIt could be black humour. The faded, red HAZELWOOD sign has been switched off for years – perhaps to save electricity, who knows? – but a fortnight ago it was turned back on. HAZELVOOD now lights up the night sky in neon for miles. The letter W is dodgy
  
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• How the mouse came to live alongside humans

  28-03-2017 02:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The origins of house mice go back about 15,000 years to the Middle East, fossil evidence suggests.
  
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• Stressed street trees: mapping the urban forests to save them – and us

  28-03-2017 00:51 via theguardian.com
  
  City trees are under increased threat but research tools show that looking after them will lower temperatures, prevent flooding and reduce pollutionStanding proud at the intersection of Queen and Little Bourke streets in Melbourne’s central business district is one of the city’s beloved London plane trees. It’s in declining health and will probably need to be replaced in a decade or so. I know this not as an arborist, or even as a keen observer, but because the City of Melbourn
  
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