Environment news

• Distressing sight of a felled woodland: Country diary 50 years ago

  28-05-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published on 29 May 1967KESWICK: There is quite a lot of hardwood tree felling going on round here at present, not in State-owned woods but on private land. There are few sights more distressing to the senses (and sometimes the common sense) than a felled woodland, especially when most of the replanting (if any is done at all) will probably be of coniferous trees to replace these lovely oaks, beeches, and sycamores. I visited one such ravaged wood last night towards dusk in ignorance
  
  Read more

• Floods bring rush hour chaos to Bangkok

  28-05-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Thailand experiences the heaviest rainfall in a decade while in Russia, a prolonged dry spell results in devastating wildfiresThe city of Bangkok has been inundated after a massive low pressure system encompassing North, Central and East Thailand produced heavy rainfall and widespread flooding last Thursday morning. The district of Wang Thong Lang was hit the hardest with 169mm of rain, making it the heaviest rainfall event in the province over the last decade, while 90-130mm of rain fell across
  
  Read more

• The world's most toxic town: the terrible legacy of Zambia's lead mines

  28-05-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Almost a century of lead mining and smelting has poisoned generations of children in the Copperbelt town of Kabwe in ZambiaThe heavy legacy of lead in the world’s most toxic town – in pictures“I’d like to be a doctor,” says seven-year-old Martin, sitting quietly in his modest home in Kabwe, Zambia. But the truth is that Martin struggles with his schoolwork, and his dream seems unlikely to become a reality.
  Kabwe is the world’s most toxic town, according to pol
  
  Read more

• Harambe: A year from gorilla death which sparked numerous memes

  28-05-2017 18:35 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Social media users target Cincinnati Zoo on the anniversary of Harambe's killing.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• UK's biggest solar company takes shine to global projects with deals worth £3bn

  28-05-2017 17:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Solarcentury turns to Europe and Latin America as it transforms into an international firm to maintain growth hit by green cuts in home marketBritain’s biggest solar power company has shrugged off the cloud of drastic UK subsidy cuts by reinventing itself as an international firm with more than £3bn of projects planned.More than 12,000 solar jobs were lost in the industry after the government slashed support in 2015, but Solarcentury has survived by turning outward to target markets
  
  Read more

• UK lobbies Europe to dilute flagship energy efficiency law

  28-05-2017 15:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Green campaigners warn Conservative efforts to undermine energy targets will lead to weaker climate policies after BrexitThe UK is lobbying Europe to water down a key energy-saving target despite the fact it will not take effect until after Brexit, according to leaked documents that sparked warnings that energy bills could rise and jobs put at risk.On the day Theresa May triggered article 50, government officials asked the European commission to weaken or drop elements of its flagship energy eff
  
  Read more

• Trump plan on Paris climate deal unclear after G7 pressure

  28-05-2017 14:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Report says Trump has told confidants he will pull US out of agreement but defense secretary Mattis says ‘president is wide open on this issue’Donald Trump’s intentions regarding US participation in the Paris climate deal remained unknown on Sunday, as one report cited “confidants” saying the president had made up his mind to pull out while a senior cabinet minister said he was “quite certain the president is wide open on this issue”. Related: Donald Tru
  
  Read more

• The eco guide to renewable energy

  28-05-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Solar power is soaring, wind goes from strength to strength. Look for a mighty surge in renewables over the next few yearsOne day in late March, during a sunny weekend, something spectacular happened. Solar power broke a new record. The demand for daytime electricity in UK homes fell to night times levels – thanks to solar panels in roofs and fields. Thanks to the sunshine, solar power created six times more electricity than coal-fired power stations that day.One day in late March, solar p
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Australia will still support Paris climate deal if Trump pulls out, Frydenberg says

  28-05-2017 05:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Environment minister says Coalition takes emissions targets seriously and US climate change policy was ‘a matter for the Trump administration’The Turnbull government will support the Paris agreement on climate change regardless of whether or not the US president, Donald Trump, pulls out, the environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has signalled. Trump upset world leaders on the weekend by refusing, at the conclusion of the G7 summit in Italy, to declare his support for the UN’s
  
  Read more

• Climate change: Trump keeps world waiting on Paris deal

  28-05-2017 05:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The US president says he will announce this week if he will pull out of the Paris agreement.
  
  Read more

• Wild Amazon faces destruction as Brazil’s farmers and loggers target national park

  28-05-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  
  The Sierra Ricardo Franco park was meant to be a conservation area protecting rare wildlifeTo understand why the Brazilian government is deliberately losing the battle against deforestation, you need only retrace the bootmarks of the Edwardian explorer Percy Fawcett along the Amazonian border with Bolivia.During a failed attempt to cross a spectacular tabletop plateau here in 1906, the adventurer nearly died on the first of his many trips to South America. Back then, the area was so far from hum
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!