Environment news

• UK government's draft air pollution plan expected on Friday

  04-05-2017 22:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Class action on behalf of asthma suffers may still go ahead over repeated failure to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxideA long-awaited draft air quality plan aimed at reducing diesel emissions is expected to be published on Friday, but lawyers said they still intend to launch a class action against the government for repeatedly failing to clean up illegal levels of pollution.The government is expected to publish the plan at around midday, after key local election results have been announce
  
  Read more

• Air pollution lawsuit set to go ahead despite delayed government plan

  04-05-2017 22:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Class action on behalf of asthma suffers may still go ahead over repeated failure to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxideLawyers are taking a class action against the government over its repeated failures to clean up illegal levels of air pollution, the Guardian can reveal, as ministers publish a long-awaited plan to reduce diesel emissions.The unprecedented legal challenge on behalf of asthma sufferers could see ministers paying out significant compensation for allowing the nation’s
  
  Read more

• This butterfly needs a break

  04-05-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Challenged by climate change, our most secretive butterfly could soon be getting a helping hand if a new campaign takes offRecent very butterfly-unfriendly icy winds remind me of an insect that endures horrendous weather every summer. The mountain ringlet is our only montane butterfly, meaning that you have to climb a mountain – or at least 400 metres up a Lake District fell – to see it.Some mountain ringlet caterpillars may live for two years so slowly do they grow, chewing grass in
  
  Read more

• Orangutan rescued after two years in box in Indonesia

  04-05-2017 22:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Watch the moment a young ape is freed after two years locked away in a wooden cage in Indonesia.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Westpac's Adani decision finds public support, despite Canavan's disapproval

  04-05-2017 22:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Survey shows 41% of people support bank’s decision to rule out funding Adani’s Queensland mine, with only 14% against, as the resources minister vows to switch banks
  Almost three times as many people support Westpac’s decision to rule out funding Adani’s Queensland mine than disapprove of it, a survey has found.But at least one Westpac customer is set to dump the bank over its new climate policy, which precludes helping open up a new coal region with Australia’s lar
  
  Read more

• Noise pollution is drowning out nature even in protected areas – study

  04-05-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Human noises are often 10 times that of background levels, impairing our enjoyment of natural parks and impacting animal behaviour, scientists have foundThe sounds of the natural world are being overwhelmed by the blare of human activity, even in protected wildlife areas, new research has revealed. The racket is not only harming people’s enjoyment of natural havens, which are known to have significant benefits for both physical and mental health, but it is also affecting wildlife, with ani
  
  Read more

• Journal retracts controversial paper on dangers of microplastics to fish

  04-05-2017 19:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Researchers behind study, which may have helped cement case for banning microbeads, found guilty of scientific misconductA landmark paper claiming to show the devastating impact of microplastics on fish has been retracted after an investigation found the authors guilty of scientific misconduct.The study, published in the prestigious journal Science, claimed that fish became “smaller, slower and more stupid” when exposed to tiny plastic fragments in the marine environment. It also sug
  
  Read more

• Business input key for success of new efficiency standards, claims property sector

  04-05-2017 19:11
  
  EXCLUSIVE: The UK's real-estate industry needs to work with Government in the upcoming months to iron out the major issues of a new energy efficiency standard for privately rented commercial buildings.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Denmark gets its first wild wolf pack in 200 years

  04-05-2017 18:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Arrival of a female wolf, that trekked 500km from Germany, means the pack could have cubs by spring A wolf pack is roaming wild in Denmark for the first time in more than 200 years after a young female wolf journeyed 500km from Germany.Male wolves have been seen in Denmark since 2012 and the new female could produce cubs this spring in farmland in west Jutland after two wolves were filmed together last autumn. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Government faces class action on air pollution in landmark case

  04-05-2017 17:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Legal challenge on behalf of asthma sufferers could see ministers pay out compensation for failure to clean up illegal levels of pollutionLawyers are preparing to mount an unprecedented class action against the government over its repeated failures to clean up illegal levels of air pollution from diesel traffic.The legal challenge on behalf of asthma sufferers could see ministers paying out significant compensation for allowing the nation’s air to exceed legal limits for so long
  
  Read more

• CIWM: Circular economy will suffer without Government's helping hand

  04-05-2017 16:11
  
  EXCLUSIVE: Businesses must be given the right tools from Government to take up an "incredibly powerful" role in the UK's resource and waste management system, according to the new chief executive of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM).
  
  Read more

• Dick Potts obituary

  04-05-2017 13:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Ecologist and conservationist who helped save the threatened grey partridgeDick Potts, who has died aged 77, did more to bridge the gap between conservationists, farmers and the game shooting fraternity than any other figure. He combined his training as a scientist, his background as a farmer’s son and his passion for birds to help save the threatened grey partridge.From small beginnings in a Portakabin on a farm in West Sussex in 1968, Dick developed a long-term study into the ecology of
  
  Read more

• Red alert: Kofi Annan on the photos that capture our choking planet

  04-05-2017 13:45 via theguardian.com
  
  From a masked Tokyo commuter fighting for space to the plastic particles killing our oceans, the former UN secretary-general hails the photographers shortlisted for tonight’s space-themed Prix Pictet prizeWe are running out of space. Fly over Africa at night and you will see mile after mile of fires burning red in the dark as scrub is removed to make way for human beings. Satellite images of nocturnal Europe or America show vast areas lit up like an enormous fairground. From Shanghai to Sy
  
  Read more

• Jurassic animal found on Skye 'fed milk to young'

  04-05-2017 13:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A fossil found on Skye of the early mammal suggests it had a set of milk teeth, say palaeontologists.
  
  Read more

• Nasa runs competition to help make old Fortran code faster

  04-05-2017 12:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Two coders will share a $55,000 prize for what a Nasa official calls the "ultimate 'geek' dream assignment.
  
  Read more

• Beijing hit by new air pollution crisis as huge sandstorm blows in

  04-05-2017 12:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Dozens of flights are reported cancelled and residents urged to stay indoors to avoid breathing in dangerous particlesA putrid, nicotine-shaded mist loomed over Beijing on Thursday after a massive sandstorm slammed into the Chinese capital bringing the latest “airpocalypse” to this smog-choked city.Dozens of flights were reportedly cancelled at Beijing’s airport, the world’s second busiest, and authorities urged residents to stay indoors after levels of PM10, a tiny inhal
  
  Read more

• UK energy storage predicted to grow 100-fold by 2020

  04-05-2017 12:01
  
  SmartestEnergy has called for renewables and storage to be able to compete on a level playing field with other forms of energy, as it publishes a new report highlighting how independent developers are turning to batteries.
  
  Read more

• Nissan launches British-made home battery to rival Tesla's Powerwall

  04-05-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sunderland plant to produce new and recycled batteries from electric cars to serve as home energy storage unitsBatteries that have powered electric cars around the UK will get a second life providing energy storage for households, with the launch this week of a British-made home battery to rival the one made by Elon Musk’s Tesla.The cells will be made by the Japanese car-maker Nissan in Sunderland, where its popular Leaf electric car is built, and sold in partnership with the US power firm
  
  Read more

• Spray on and printable: what's next for the solar panel market?

  04-05-2017 09:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Thin film technology is touted as a gamechanger for the solar panel market, but it’s not without drawbacksSpray on, printable and other new thin film technology looks set to provide a major boost to the global solar market.Currently being developed by researchers and a small number of companies, the new film materials offer the potential of lighter and cheaper manufacturing.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• 'Nebraska is the last hope to stop the Keystone XL pipeline' – video

  04-05-2017 09:09 via theguardian.com
  
  After Trump’s revival of the Keystone XL pipeline project, some communities along its route are getting ready to fight back. Others see the US president keeping his promise to ‘make America great again’. The Guardian drove along the proposed route of the pipeline, through three red states – Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska – to hear what those who will be affected have to say about it
  Keystone defiance triggers assault on a constitutional rightLife on the Keystone
  
  Read more

• Soil erosion in Tanzania – in pictures

  04-05-2017 09:02 via theguardian.com
  
  The Jali Ardhi, or ‘care for the land’ project, studies the impact of soil erosion on Maasai communities and their grazing lands. Photojournalist Carey Marks captures the changing landscape, its people – and the challenges they faceThe exhibition is at Plymouth University from 22 May to 2 June
  Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Keystone XL: the final leg and the myth of Trump's job promise

  04-05-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Part three: The Guardian’s pipeline road trip ends in Nebraska, where Trump has sold the project as a creator of ‘a lot of jobs’, but facts don’t support his claimsWords by Oliver Laughland, photos and video by Laurence Mathieu-Léger, graphics by Monica UlmanuSupport our environmental reporting with a contribution or by becoming a member“Nebraska is the last hope for stopping this,” says Art Tanderup, sitting on the lawn close to the solar panels that p
  
  Read more

• Birdwatching from space

  04-05-2017 07:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists are counting albatrosses on remote islands from satellite images.
  
  Read more

• Secretive spore shooter prized by gourmets

  04-05-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Wolsingham, Weardale We were about to give up when we spotted the first morel, its convoluted, toffee-coloured, cap not much larger than a golf ballEvery winter this gently sloping bank on the outside of a bend in the Wear is swept clean by flood water. When spring arrives buried plant life reasserts itself through layers of sandy silt deposited when the river has swirled through the alders.First the snowdrops spear through the surface. Last time we passed this way yellow star of Bethlehem flowe
  
  Read more

• Big birds

  04-05-2017 06:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Super-sharp images from a US satellite are keeping track of remote bird-breeding sites.
  
  Read more

• Albatrosses counted from space

  04-05-2017 06:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Super-sharp images from a US satellite are keeping track of remote bird-breeding sites.
  
  Read more

• Last chance to register for sustainability reporting webinar TODAY

  04-05-2017 03:00
  
  Sustainability and CSR professionals are invited to tune into a free-to-watch live webinar today (4 May) at 11am (BST), which will focus on maximising the value of reporting.
  
  Read more

• Global warming scientists learn lessons from the pause that never was | Planet Oz

  04-05-2017 02:45 via theguardian.com
  
  New study finds there never was an unexpected lull in climate change but says the science community needs to communicate betterPeople don’t talk about how global warming has stopped, paused or slowed down all that much any more – three consecutive hottest years on record will tend to do that to a flaky meme.But there was a time a few years ago when you couldn’t open your news feed without being told global warming had stopped by some conservative columnist, climate science deni
  
  Read more

• Man arrested at airport with snakes, frogs and lizards in backpack

  04-05-2017 02:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Russian en route from Brazil detained in Amsterdam after reptiles and cockroaches found in buckets in luggageCustoms officials have arrested a Russian man at Amsterdam’s international airport after dozens of poisonous snakes and frogs were found hidden in his luggage.
  The man, who was en route to Russia, was detained on a stopover at Schiphol airport after a trip to Brazil, the , the Dutch food and animal watchdog said on Wednesday. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Big bang theory

  04-05-2017 01:48 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Pioneering work that extracts information from audio of gunshots could help solve criminal cases.
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!