Environment news

• Dakota Access pipeline has first leak before it's fully operational

  10-05-2017 23:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Leak raises fresh concerns about hazards to waterways and outrages indigenous groups, who have long warned of threat to environmentThe Dakota Access pipeline has suffered its first leak, outraging indigenous groups who have long warned that the project poses a threat to the environment.The $3.8bn oil pipeline, which sparked international protests last year and is not yet fully operational, spilled 84 gallons of crude oil at a South Dakota pump station, according to government regulators.Continue
  
  Read more

• Dakota Access pipeline has first leak before fully operational

  10-05-2017 23:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Leak raises fresh concerns about hazards to waterways and outrages indigenous groups, who have long warned of threat to environmentThe Dakota Access pipeline has suffered its first leak, outraging indigenous groups who have long warned that the project poses a threat to the environment.The $3.8bn oil pipeline, which sparked international protests last year and is not yet fully operational, spilled 84 gallons of crude oil at a South Dakota pump station, according to government regulators.Continue
  
  Read more

• Republicans fail to repeal methane regulations for drilling on public lands

  10-05-2017 19:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Vote on Obama-era rule to reduce emissions from oil and gas drilling on federal land fails 51-49 as three Republican senators defectA Republican move to undo limits on the emission of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, has suffered an unexpected defeat in the Senate.
  A bill to repeal a Department of Interior rule that reduces the venting, flaring and leaking of methane from oil and gas drilling on federal land failed by 51 votes to 49, with Republicans John McCain, Susan Collins and Lindsey Gra
  
  Read more

• Bandits kill park ranger in Democratic Republic of the Congo

  10-05-2017 17:15 via theguardian.com
  
  An armed group ambushed a convoy of rangers from the Itombwe reserve fatally injuring one and holding two others ransom, including a French nationalA park ranger was killed and two conservation workers were briefly abducted when bandits ambushed a convoy of rangers from the Itombwe reserve in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).Anselme Matabaro, an ICCN staff member and deputy chief of the Itombwe reserve was seriously injured in the attack on 5 May in eastern Congo and has since died.Continu
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• SNP accused of twisting Andrea Leadsom's fishing industry remarks

  10-05-2017 14:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Nicola Sturgeon’s party criticised by Tories and industry leaders over leaked excerpts of letter about integrating EU fisheries lawA battle has broken out over the future of Britain’s fishing industry after the Scottish National party was accused of twisting the words of the environment secretary, Andrea Leadsom.The Conservatives and industry leaders said the SNP had selectively leaked excerpts from a letter from Leadsom to the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation that disclosed tha
  
  Read more

• Indian solar power prices hit record low, undercutting fossil fuels

  10-05-2017 14:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Plummeting wholesale prices put the country on track to meet renewable energy targets set out in the Paris agreementWholesale solar power prices have reached another record low in India, faster than analysts predicted and further undercutting the price of fossil fuel-generated power in the country.The tumbling price of solar energy also increases the likelihood that India will meet – and by its own predictions, exceed – the renewable energy targets it set at the Paris climate accords
  
  Read more

• Thousands of lizards delay controversial Stuttgart 21 rail project

  10-05-2017 13:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Deutsche Bahn budgets €15m to relocate threatened sand and wall lizards as costs continue to grow in major station upgradeA multi-billion-euro railway development project in southern Germany, which has already been waylaid by spiralling costs and rows over environmental concerns and viability, is facing its latest challenge – from two threatened species of lizard.Thousands of sand and wall lizards have been found along the route of the project, known as Stuttgart 21. A major upgrade o
  
  Read more

• UN examines fossil fuel influence in climate talks process

  10-05-2017 13:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Campaigners say there should be greater scrutiny of industry bodies that are involved in UN climate talks.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Nine dead in Amazon's worst land-related killings in decades

  10-05-2017 13:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Hit men attacked a remote Brazilian settlement where deforestation, land grabbing and violence go unpunished, reports Climate HomeNine men were stabbed or shot dead on 19 April over a territorial dispute in a remote area of Mato Grosso state, deep in the Amazon rainforest.In the afternoon, hitmen swept through the land in question, known as Linha (road) 15, killing everyone they found. Some of the bodies bore signs of torture. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• 'Fake females' to aid rare moth work in Cairngorms

  10-05-2017 11:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Male Kentish glory moths are to be counted with the aid of bits of rubber coated in the scent of female moths.
  
  Read more

• Yorkshire abbey that is 'world’s first eco-friendly nunnery' – in pictures

  10-05-2017 10:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Stanbrook Abbey is located in the North York Moors national park and claims to be the world’s first environmentally friendly nunnery. Designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios at a total cost of £7.5m, it features solar panels, rainwater harvesting and a sedum roof. The nuns relocated from a Grade-II listed church in Worcestershire that had proved to be uneconomical and unmanageable Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• 10 selfish reasons to save elephants

  10-05-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Elephants can help humans live longer, healthier, happier lives. Help them, and we help ourselvesIt sometimes feels as if we are living in the elephant’s darkest hour. China may be closing down its domestic ivory trade and the EU getting to grips with smuggling, yet the poachers continue their bloody business. Meanwhile, forests are being destroyed, herds’ migration routes are being blocked, and humans and elephants are competing ever more fiercely for land, food and water.
  So this i
  
  Read more

• ExxonMobil criticised over response to Bass Strait oil spill

  10-05-2017 08:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Investigation finds failure to properly respond to spill near drilling platform posed ‘significant threat to the environment’
  Failure to properly respond to an oil spill near an ExxonMobil rig in the Bass Strait increased the risk of contamination and posed a “significant threat to the environment”, an investigation has found.The spill was reported to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema) on 1 February after an oily sheen
  
  Read more

• Challenge Conservatives on energy priorities and cuts to renewables

  10-05-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Onshore wind has higher public approval than nuclear and fracking, so why are Tories expanding unpopular industries with higher carbon footprints? Renewable power expanded exponentially under the Tory-Lib Dem coalition elected in 2010 and by 2015 the renewable industries had a turnover of £14.9bn and had reduced wholesale electricity prices. If this expansion had continued under the next government, an all-renewable UK electricity supply was achievable by 2025.Though the 2015 Tory manifest
  
  Read more

• Conservationists plan expedition to secret ‘Noah’s Ark’ in Sumatra

  10-05-2017 06:45 via theguardian.com
  
  After photographing tigers and tapirs in one of Sumatra’s least known wildernesses, an unlikely pair of conservationists are hoping to discover a hidden population of orangutans in high altitude forests – and who knows what else.Just a few years ago this place had no name. And in fact its new moniker – Hadabaun Hills – is the sole creation of Indonesian conservationist Haray Sam Munthe. Hadabaun means “fall” in the local language – Munthe suffered a terr
  
  Read more

• Sweetness of woodruff lingers down the ages

  10-05-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Benthall Edge, Shropshire This plant has had a symbolic, medicinal and folkloric importance for centuriesThe margins of woodland paths are full of woodruff, white on green, and sheltered under trees is the ghost of its scent. Galium odoratum is the sweet woodruff, an erect perennial of limestone woods, 15cm-30cm high with square stems through whorls of up to nine leaves – the ruffs – ending in tight umbels of cross-shaped, bright white flowers that have a vanilla scent.Woodruff grows
  
  Read more

• Identity of famous baby dinosaur fossil revealed

  10-05-2017 05:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The fossil of a hatchling dinosaur dubbed Baby Louie is recognised as a new species of feathered dinosaur.
  
  Read more

• Baby brain scans reveal trillions of neural connections

  10-05-2017 04:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists release groundbreaking medical scans that reveal how the human brain develops.
  
  Read more

• Biofuels: could agave, hemp and saltbush be the fuels of the future?

  10-05-2017 03:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Oilier plants, new processing technologies and multipurpose crops could put the biofuel industry back in the race for greener transport fuels Biofuels have long been touted as a carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels, doing for the world’s planes, ships and automobiles what windfarms and solar panels are doing for its electricity grids. With the transport sector accounting for almost one fifth of Australia’s total carbon emissions, green biofuels could be an important ingredient
  
  Read more

• Buddha's birthplace faces serious air pollution threat

  10-05-2017 02:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Data collected from air quality monitoring stations shows high levels of pollution at the site.
  
  Read more

• Man in hospital after Northern Territory crocodile attack

  10-05-2017 01:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Saltwater crocodile attacked the 54-year-old as he tried to wade across a flooded causeway in the Daly river regionA 54-year-old man is recovering in hospital after being attacked by a saltwater crocodile in the Northern Territory.The man was wading across a waterway near Palumpa, a Daly river region community about 370km south-west of Darwin, when he was attacked by the two-metre animal. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!