Environment news

• Air pollution linked to poor sleep, study finds

  21-05-2017 22:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Exposure to nitrogen dioxide and airborne particles affects sleep efficiency, says medical professorAir pollution might be linked to poor sleep, say researchers looking into the impact of toxic air on our slumbers. Related: Looking tired can harm your social life, say researchersContinue reading...
  
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• Time for the oil industry to snuff out its flares

  21-05-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The World Bank reckons the 16,000 flares worldwide produce around 350m tonnes of CO2 each year, causing untold harmThe emission of air pollution from traffic in our cities is the last step for a fuel that produces air pollution at every stage of production, often starting with flaring at a distant oil well. The World Bank estimates that the 16,000 flares worldwide produce around 350m tonnes of CO2 each year. Black carbon from sooty flames adds to the problems, especially across the northern hemi
  
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• Cock-of-the-rock rules the roost in Peru's Manu cloud forest

  21-05-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  We had come to see one of the greatest bird spectacles in the world: the courtship display of the Andean cock-of-the-rockOur guide unlocked the wooden door. “Here” he announced to his still sleepy audience “are the keys to paradise.” José Antonio has probably used this line before, but none of us was complaining. For as dawn broke over the Manu cloud forest, in the heart of Peru, we were assembling on a wooden platform perched on the edge of the mountainside. We ha
  
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• Privatisation, water poverty and leaks | Letters

  21-05-2017 20:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Emanuele Lobina makes the case for public ownership of the water industry, while Peter Simpson of Anglian Water defends the privatised company’s record on reducing leaksNils Pratley (Labour’s water renationalisation plan is a damp squib, 17 May) argues that there is no need to renationalise water because regulation is enough to tame the monopolistic behaviour of the private operators. This argument is not convincing when you look at the experience with water privatisation since 1989.
  
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• Video: California sea lion grabs girl from dock and pulls her underwater

  21-05-2017 20:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Girl shaken but physically unharmed after large sea lion grabs her dress and pulls her into the water near Vancouver, CanadaA young girl and her family were left shaken after a large sea lion grabbed her and pulled her underwater near Vancouver.The girl was sitting on a dock in Richmond watching the animal in the water before it grabbed her dress and pulled her into the water.Continue reading...
  
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• Sea lion grabs girl from dock and pulls her underwater

  21-05-2017 20:03 via theguardian.com
  
  Girl shaken but physically unharmed after large sea lion grabs her dress and pulls her into the water near Vancouver, CanadaA young girl and her family were left shaken after a large sea lion grabbed her and pulled her underwater near Vancouver.The girl was sitting on a dock in Richmond watching the animal in the water before it grabbed her dress and pulled her into the water.Continue reading...
  
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• New coalmines will worsen poverty and escalate climate change, report finds

  21-05-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Oxfam attacks Australia’s ‘climate policy paralysis’ and urges it to promise no new coalmines and end public subsidies New coalmines will leave more people in poverty, Oxfam has said in a new report, calling on Australia to commit to no new coalmines and to end public subsidies for coalmining.The report comes as the Queensland and federal governments continue to push for the controversial Adani coalmine in the Galilee basin, signalling potential infrastructure support and &ldqu
  
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• Mount Everest's famous Hillary Step destroyed, mountaineers confirm

  21-05-2017 18:33 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The world's highest mountain poses new hazards after the collapse of a key rocky outcrop.
  
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• Mesmerising lava flows from Kilauea volcano in Hawaii

  21-05-2017 17:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Look but don't touch as it tumbles down the Pulama Pali slope in Hawaii.
  
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• Shell shareholders to vote for new climate change goals

  21-05-2017 12:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Investors including the Church of England and activists will send signal to Anglo-Dutch company’s board at AGM this weekShell shareholders including the Church of England, European pension funds and Dutch activists will send a signal to the board of the Anglo-Dutch company this week by voting for it to set new climate change goals.The challenge comes from a Dutch group of retail investors, who have tabled a resolution for Shell’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, asking the company
  
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• Rebellious Shell shareholders to vote for new climate change goals

  21-05-2017 12:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Investors including the Church of England and activists will send signal to Anglo-Dutch firm’s board at AGM this weekShell shareholders including the Church of England, European pension funds and Dutch activists will send a signal to the Anglo-Dutch firm’s board this week by voting for the company to set new climate change goals.The challenge comes from a Dutch group of retail investors, who have tabled a resolution at the company’s AGM on Tuesday, asking it to establish carbon
  
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• Charging ahead: Welsh battery scheme may aid growth of green energy

  21-05-2017 12:21 via theguardian.com
  
  One of the UK’s largest battery storage schemes, built next to a windfarm, will offer vital services to the National GridNestling alongside rows of conifers and wind turbines in a Welsh valley, a pioneering project will materialise this summer that could prove a blueprint for unlocking Britain’s renewable energy potential.The Upper Afan Valley near Swansea is already home to the biggest windfarm in England and Wales, but in July work will begin there on one of the UK’s largest
  
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• ‘Spiteful and petty’: Maine governor bans signs to Obama-designated monument

  21-05-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As Trump administration reviews 27 national monuments, conservationists fear a federally mandated effort to strip public lands of environmental protectionsA decision by the Republican governor of Maine, Paul LePage, to ban signs to Katahdin Woods and Waters, a national monument designated by Barack Obama, has been described as “sophomoric and petty” by a member of the family that donated the 87,563-acre tract to the nation. Related: 'This is our land': New Mexico's tribal groups gear
  
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• Charities may face criminal sanctions as 'gagging law' backdated before election

  21-05-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Electoral Commission says charities must declare all campaign spending since June last year, despite them not knowing a snap election would be calledUK charities face a permanent “chilling effect” on their campaigns after the Electoral Commission said they must declare any work that could be deemed political over the past 12 months to ensure they are not in breach of the Lobbying Act. At least one charity has been warned that if it does not, it may face “civil or criminal sanct
  
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• How do the four main parties compare on the environment?

  21-05-2017 10:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Environment experts weigh up the manifesto pledges on issues such as air pollution, climate change, energy and waste Continue reading...
  
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• Florists and farmers call on patriotic shoppers to buy British blooms

  21-05-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners call for all cut flowers to have ‘grown in UK’ labelWhen you’re searching for the perfect bunch of flowers at your local supermarket or florist, how many of those blooms do you think are grown in Britain? The perhaps surprising answer is typically just 10% to 12% – a percentage that has been shrinking rapidly over the last 30 years.Now the National Farmers’ Union, backed by growers and florists, is taking matters into its own hands. It is spearheading ca
  
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• Queensland Labor denies split over Adani 'royalties holiday'

  21-05-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Reports suggest Adani could pay just $2m a year for the first seven years of the Carmichael mine’s operationA senior Queensland government minister denies there is a rift in Labor ranks over the issue of a proposed “royalties holiday” for the mining company Adani.There are reports the government is set to offer Adani a deal to waive a big portion of its royalties for the first few years of the operation of its Carmichael mine in north Queensland’s Galilee Basin to help ge
  
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• The eco guide to unusual materials

  21-05-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Fabrics such as cotton come at a dear cost to the environment. Look for progressive alternatives made from pineapples, eucalyptus, even mushroomsFuture generations will shake their heads at our loyalty to a handful of fibres with terrible environmental profiles, such as cotton (thirsty for pesticides and water) and plastic (oil based). They’ll want to know why we didn’t display more imagination.Many innovations in the fashion industry have a distinctly mushroomy flavour Continue read
  
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• The Observer view on Scotland’s windfarm dilemma | Observer editorial

  21-05-2017 01:04 via theguardian.com
  
  The government must find a way to proceed with green energy projects while maintaining responsibility for its environmentFor anyone who has concerns about our environment and about humanity’s future in a rapidly heating world, the proposed construction of massive offshore windfarms in Scotland’s Firths of Forth and Tay poses a dilemma of some magnitude. On one hand, the four projects – Inch Cape, Neart na Gaoithe and Seagreen Alpha and Bravo – offer the prospect of genera
  
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• Gannets, puffins, kittiwakes: birds at risk in Scottish windfarm surge

  21-05-2017 01:02 via theguardian.com
  
  After a long legal battle, 335 turbines will now be built in Scottish watersIn the waters of the North Sea a few miles off Scotland’s east coast, a nine-year battle has been raging that threatens a fragile and unique environmental equilibrium. The struggle has made mortal enemies of two huge lobbies that share a passionate commitment to the environment.On one side are the developers of four vast windfarms comprising 335 turbines, which are planned for the waters of the Firth of Forth and t
  
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• Experts reject Bjørn Lomborg's view on 2C warming target

  21-05-2017 00:02 via theguardian.com
  
  Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Centre says investment in keeping temperature rises below 2C would return less than $1 for every $1 spentExperts have challenged a claim by Bjørn Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Centre that holding global temperature rises to 2C is a poor investment.In 2015 the education department abandoned plans for Lomborg to set up an Australian Consensus Centre, but gave the Copenhagen centre $640,000 to support its Smarter UN Post-2015 Development Goals proj
  
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