Environment news

• Bizarre bivalve: first living giant shipworm discovered in Philippines

  17-04-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Mud-dwelling organism that lives head down in a tusklike tube found alive for first time, although its existence had been known of for centuriesAbout three feet long and glistening black with a pink, fleshy appendage, it looks like the entrails of an alien from a bad horror film. In fact, it is a giant shipworm.Discovered in the mud of a shallow lagoon in the Philippines, a living creature of the species has never been described before – even though its existence has been known for more th
  
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• Hunting ban wrecked foxes’ country lifestyle | Letters

  17-04-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It is no coincidence that the  proliferation of foxes in urban areas (A brush with nature, G2, 10 April) has greatly increased since the Blair government’s Hunting Act 2004. Life for the fox is nowadays far worse in many parts of our countryside, and consequently this intelligent animal seeks sanctuary in towns and suburbs. The Hunting Act was intended to ban hunting foxes with hounds, but in so doing it has greatly harmed the rural fox. Fox hunts observed a close season, not hunting
  
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• Big six energy firms braced for government price crackdown

  17-04-2017 17:43 via theguardian.com
  
  New rules are expected to be implemented as soon as next week, most likely in form of price cap on standard variable tariffsCentral heating systems are being turned off across the country as spring takes hold, but winter is coming for energy companies who have recently hiked bills for millions of households.Theresa May said the energy market was “manifestly” not working after a flurry of price rises by the big six companies – British Gas, e.on, EDF, npower, ScottishPower, and S
  
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• Receding glacier causes immense Canadian river to vanish in four days

  17-04-2017 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  First ever observed case of ‘river piracy’ saw the Slims river disappear as intense glacier melt suddenly diverted its flow into another watercourseAn immense river that flowed from one of Canada’s largest glaciers vanished over the course of four days last year, scientists have reported, in an unsettling illustration of how global warming dramatically changes the world’s geography.The abrupt and unexpected disappearance of the Slims river, which spanned up to 150 metres
  
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• Government open to gas swaps to secure domestic supply

  17-04-2017 16:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Labor and Australian Industry Group back plans to facilitate swaps that would use overseas gas to fulfil export ordersThe government may be open to facilitating gas swaps, in which export contracts are fulfilled using overseas gas, to keep more for Australia’s domestic supply.The resources and northern Australia minister, Matt Canavan, told Radio National on Monday evening it was realistic that the government could help private companies arrange swaps and the idea was part of its consultat
  
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• Stop swooning over Justin Trudeau. The man is a disaster for the planet | Bill McKibben

  17-04-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Donald Trump is a creep and unpleasant to look at, but at least he’s not a stunning hypocrite when it comes to climate change
  Donald Trump is so spectacularly horrible that it’s hard to look away – especially now that he’s discovered bombs. But precisely because everyone’s staring gape-mouthed in his direction, other world leaders are able to get away with almost anything. Don’t believe me? Look one country north, at Justin Trudeau. Look all you want, in fact
  
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• Humans on the verge of causing Earth’s fastest climate change in 50m years | Dana Nuccitelli

  17-04-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Humans are changing Earth’s climate at an alarmingly fast rate
  A new study published in Nature Communications looks at changes in solar activity and carbon dioxide levels over the past 420 million years. The authors found that on our current path, by mid-century humans will be causing the fastest climate change in approximately 50 million years, and if we burn all available fossil fuels, we’ll cause the fastest change in the entire 420 million year record. Continue reading...
  
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• Teenage girl dies after shark attack while surfing in Western Australia

  17-04-2017 11:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Police confirm 17-year-old died after attack at Kelp Beds, near Wylie Bay in Esperance A 17-year-old girl has died after being attacked by a shark in Western Australia.Monday’s attack happened at Kelp Beds, near Wylie Bay in Esperance just before 4pm, police said. Continue reading...
  
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• Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist review – saving the planet, one lavatory at a time

  17-04-2017 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Paul Kingsnorth complements his fiction with a selection of thought-provoking essaysFancy ripping out your plumbed-in lavatory and replacing it with a bucket, some pine needles and sawdust? This is Paul Kingsnorth’s new environmentalism: less concerned with arguing for grand political gestures that won’t prevent Earth’s “sixth mass extinction” in any case, rather, arguing for small change in the immediate world around us. Last year, Kingsnorth published the second i
  
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• Air pollution as bad for wellbeing as partner's death, say researchers

  17-04-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Authors of Can Clean Air Make You Happy? say exposure to nitrogen dioxide can be as damaging as ‘big-hitting’ life eventsThe effect on wellbeing of exposure to nitrogen dioxide, a gas mostly produced in diesel fumes, is comparable to the toll from losing a job, ending a relationship or the death of a partner, research suggests.The study found a “significant and negative association” between life satisfaction and levels of the pollutant, which causes lung problems. These e
  
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• roaring waterfall rheidol country diary

  17-04-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Afon Rheidol When I reached the Rheidol falls it was clear that the river was in spate from the recent rainsA narrow-gauge steam railway winds across the steep southern side of the Rheidol valley, slowly climbing the route from Aberystwyth to Devil’s Bridge. While walking deep in the valley beside the river, I was convinced I could hear the train coming and hurried out of the trees to see it pass. The noise persisted, drifting in and out of my hearing as though the engine were rounding the
  
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• Malcolm Turnbull told Coalition not doing enough to avert gas crisis

  17-04-2017 05:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Australian Industry Group says government should introduce national interest test and encourage swaps to boost supplyThe federal government should do more to stop a looming gas crisis, including introducing a national interest test for exports and encouraging use of swaps to boost domestic gas supply, the Australian Industry Group has said.In a letter sent on Thursday to Malcolm Turnbull, relevant ministers and the opposition, AiGroup warns that government efforts to boost supply while an &ldquo
  
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• Adani is not just another coalmine, it is a turning point for the nation | Hamish McKenzie

  17-04-2017 02:37 via theguardian.com
  
  If the government approves this monstrous mine it will be committing environmental treason against every Australian who values our farmers, our coasts, our bush and our way of lifeIn an almost unbroken line from Monkey Mia, down across the Bight and then all the way up the other side to Mackay, the Australian coast is etched in various shades of brown. This is the historical precipitation map. Annual rainfall has dropped, it shows, across this enormous stretch of coastline, by as much as 100 mil
  
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• London's 'super sewer' to help stop Thames becoming a toilet

  17-04-2017 02:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Work has now started on a new super-sewer that's big enough to deal with London's waste.
  
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