Environment news

• 'Doomsday' seed vault, new plants and a plague of plastic – green news roundup

  19-05-2017 18:39 via theguardian.com
  
  The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts

  19-05-2017 17:39 via theguardian.com
  
  No seeds were lost but the ability of the rock vault to provide failsafe protection against all disasters is now threatened by climate change It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity’s food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater
  
  Read more

• Live Q&A: What impact is human development having on the world’s elephant populations?

  19-05-2017 17:37 via theguardian.com
  
  The conflict between humans and elephants for space and resources is driving the rapid decline of elephant populations. Join us on Wednesday 24 May from 1-2.30pm BST to discuss how elephants and humans can live togetherThis week an elderly man was killed by a wild elephant in central India as he picked tendu leaves in the Surajpur forest. A few days earlier, a father and his son were injured after two elephants wandered into their house in Tamil Nadu. As human populations grow and communities li
  
  Read more

• Greece battles locust plague on Agios Efstratios island

  19-05-2017 16:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Locals say sheep on Agios Efstratios are starving as so much plant life is being devoured by swarms.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• UN looks to protect birds from green energy threats

  19-05-2017 12:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Shutting down wind farms when birds pass over is one of the methods being tested to save migrating species.
  
  Read more

• Study: inspiring action on climate change is more complex than you might think | John Abraham

  19-05-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  People have to grasp how climate change impacts them, and we need to value environmentally sound behaviorWe know humans are causing climate change. That is a fact that has been known for well over 100 years. We also know that there will be significant social and economic costs from the effects. In fact, the effects are already appearing in the form of more extreme weather, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and so on.So why haven’t humans done much about the problem? Answering that qu
  
  Read more

• Anti-smog bikes: could pedal power clean China's polluted air?

  19-05-2017 11:37 via theguardian.com
  
  The bikes designed by Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde would suck in polluted air, using positive ionisation to purify it, before releasing it back into the atmosphereDutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has announced the next phase of his Smog Free Project: a bike that sucks in polluted air and releases purified air in a cloud around the cyclist. According to Roosegaarde, whose design firm Studio Roosegaarde has offices in both Rotterdam and Beijing, the idea for his Smog Free Project came just over th
  
  Read more

• China claims breakthrough in mining 'flammable ice'

  19-05-2017 11:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The vast reserves of methane hydrates under the bottom of the sea could be key to future energy needs.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 2017 Whitley Gold Award winner: 'Fish loved me but people didn't'

  19-05-2017 11:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Zafer Kizilkaya's work saved a Turkish community. His fish conservation model's now widely adopted.
  
  Read more

• Woodside says it was behind oil spill that regulator kept secret

  19-05-2017 09:01 via theguardian.com
  
  The company reported a leak from a well off the coast of Western Australia to Nopsema last year, and says there was no lasting impact on the environmentWoodside Petroleum has confirmed it was behind an oil spill off the coast of Western Australia that was kept secret by the regulator for more than a year.The company said on Friday that it reported a leak from a well in the Cossack field on the North West Shelf to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nops
  
  Read more

• Great white shark study could be used to drop protected status, Greens warn

  19-05-2017 08:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Government may justify delisting the threatened species or order a cull despite its treaty obligations, senator saysA scientific study of great white shark numbers could be used by the government to justify delisting the species as threatened or ordering a cull despite international treaty obligations, the Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson has warned.Whish-Wilson, who is chairing a committee inquiring into shark mitigation and deterrence, has accused the Liberals of politicising recent deaths in
  
  Read more

• National Grid boss says Labour plan will stall green energy drive

  19-05-2017 08:05 via theguardian.com
  
  John Pettigrew claims switch to public ownership will disrupt transition to cleaner forms of energy
  Labour’s plan to take the National Grid back into public ownership would harm the UK’s switch to green energy, the grid’s chief executive has said. John Pettigrew said renationalisation was “the last thing the industry needs” as it invests to accommodate more wind and solar power on the UK’s power grids.“Clearly, on nationalisation, we do not think it is a
  
  Read more

• Immersive plunge for bored young dipper

  19-05-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Milldale, Derbyshire The adult whirred downstream. The juvenile, sat still for a bit, gaped, grew restless, then launched itself into the streamThe grassy east bank of the river Dove below the packhorse bridge at Milldale, in the Peak District, is popular with picnickers and we had to drift downstream to find a little space. Once prone, bagel in hand, I half dozed, half watched insects forming clouds over the river, catching sunlight like chaff.But then I snapped awake as I realised I was being
  
  Read more

• Electricity trial to pay users to cut power during high demand or natural disasters

  19-05-2017 05:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Arena and Aemo to trial program that would pay South Australian and Victorian customers to reduce their useSouth Australian and Victorian electricity users will be paid to voluntarily forego power use during times of extreme stress on the power grid under a trial program announced by national energy regulators. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) and the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) are looking to trial the program next summer, following outages earlier this year in South
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!