Environment news

• Dust on desert winds reduces air pollution

  20-06-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Study of Gobi sand blowing over east China finds air stagnates and human-made pollution rises when dusty winds die downPeople in China breathe more easily when dust-laden winds blow in from the Gobi desert. Paradoxical as it sounds, desert dust helps to keep human-made pollution down, a new study shows.Air pollution is a big issue in China, with hundreds of millions of people suffering from respiratory problems. An estimated 1.6 million deaths (17% of mortalities) a year are attributed to China&
  
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• London mayor issues emergency air quality alert amid heatwave

  20-06-2017 21:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Rising temperatures and southerly winds expected to bring toxic air to large parts of England and Wales on WednesdayThe mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has triggered the capital’s emergency air quality alert as soaring temperatures combined with southerly winds are expected to bring dangerously toxic air to large parts of England and Wales on Wednesday.
  The emergency alerts will see warnings displayed at bus stops, on road signs and on the underground. Continue reading...
  
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• Australia warned it has radically underestimated climate change security threat

  20-06-2017 21:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Senate inquiry starts as report into political, military and humanitarian risks of climate change across Asia Pacific releasedAs the Senate launches an inquiry into the national security ramifications of climate change, a new report has warned global warming will cause increasingly regular and severe humanitarian crises across the Asia-Pacific.
  Disaster Alley, written by the Breakthrough Centre for Climate Restoration, forecasts climate change could potentially displace tens of millions from sw
  
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• Ten years ago Turnbull called out Peter Garrett on climate. What went wrong? | Graham Readfearn

  20-06-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After a decade of policy backflips and uncertainty, we are now being sold ‘technology neutral’ energy policy. But we need it to be discriminatory – and favour clean powerTen years ago today Malcolm Turnbull was getting stuck in to a debate in Parliament House with Peter Garrett about climate change.Climate change, said Turnbull, was “an enormous challenge and probably the biggest one our country faces, the world faces, at the moment.” Continue reading...
  
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• London mayor considers pay-per-mile road pricing and ban on new parking

  20-06-2017 19:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Sadiq Khan wants to cut 3m car journeys a day and encourage cycling and walking in effort to reduce congestion and air pollutionLondon is to consider pay-per-mile road pricing and banning car parking in new developments under plans to cut 3m car journeys a day in the capital.A transport strategy to be published on Wednesday by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, will set targets to ensure 80% of journeys are made by public transport, walking or cycling. Continue reading...
  
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• Climate goals: inside California's effort to overhaul its ambitious emissions plan

  20-06-2017 19:23 via theguardian.com
  
  In the wake of Trump’s Paris withdrawal, California is taking the lead to fight emissions – and it’s rethinking how to get more out of its cap-and-trade programCalifornia has one of the world’s most sophisticated and ambitious cap-and-trade programs, which are designed to provide financial incentives to big polluters, such as electricity providers and oil refineries, to lower their greenhouse gas emissions.The complex program, which began only in 2013, is a signature comp
  
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• Closure of UK’s largest gas storage site ‘could mean volatile prices’

  20-06-2017 18:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Shuttering of Rough facility off Yorkshire coast by British Gas owner Centrica will increase dependence on imports, say criticsThe closure of the UK’s largest gas storage plant has prompted warnings that the country faces more volatile winter gas prices and is becoming too dependent on energy imports.British Gas’s owner, Centrica, said it was permanently closing the Rough facility off the Yorkshire coast because it had become unsafe and uneconomic to reopen the facility, which had be
  
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• Exxon, BP and Shell back carbon tax proposal to curb emissions

  20-06-2017 18:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Oil giants among numerous firms to support conservative group’s plan But Greenpeace says: ‘A PR exercise is no cure for decades of deception’Oil giants ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Total are among a group of large corporations supporting a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions in order to address climate change.The companies have revealed their support for the Climate Leadership Council, a group of senior Republican figures that in February proposed a $40 fee on each ton of CO2 emi
  
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• Hawking urges Moon landing to 'elevate humanity'

  20-06-2017 17:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Prof Stephen Hawking has called for leading nations to send astronauts to the Moon by the end of this decade.
  
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• Europe selects grand gravity mission

  20-06-2017 16:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  After decades in the planning, a space mission to detect gravitational waves finally gets the go-ahead.
  
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• New 'disturbance map' shows damaging effects of forest loss in Brazilian Amazon

  20-06-2017 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Silent Forest Project map reveals urgent need for conservation protections‘It is terrifying to see the Amazon degraded to this extent,’ scientist says
  As Brazil’s government steps back from Amazon conservation, the urgent need for stronger protection has been made more apparent by a new data map that highlights the knock-on effect of the forest’s capacity to absorb carbon, regulate temperatures and sustain life. Related: Wild Amazon faces destruction as Brazil’s far
  
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• Not so green: how the weed industry is a glutton for fossil fuels

  20-06-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Producing a few pounds of weed can have the same environmental toll as driving across America seven times – harming cities’ and states’ plans to curb emissionsAs he opens the steel door to the jumble of his office, located in a cloistered warehouse on the west side of Denver, Paul Isenbergh is barking down the phone about a duplicitous business rival. He’s wearing a shirt and rust-colored tie. Yards from his desk, rows of drying cannabis plants are strung up on two clothe
  
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• Malcolm Turnbull leaves open alternative to clean energy target after internal criticism

  20-06-2017 08:58 via theguardian.com
  
  Prime minister says he will restrict gas exports and ask Aemo for advice on ‘optimising affordability for consumers’The Turnbull government has moved to hose down intensifying internal concerns about rising power prices by confirming its intention to restrict gas exports, and by opening the way for an alternative to the clean energy target proposed by Australia’s chief scientist.
  The prime minister confirmed on Tuesday the government would proceed with its previously telegraphe
  
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• Sun, sand and apex predators: taking the plunge with oceanic whitetip sharks

  20-06-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Carcharhinus longimanus return annually to the waters around Cat Island in the Bahamas. I went to take a closer look at this once-abundant top predatorMy face is pressed up against the window and my brow is furrowed. For someone about to land in the Bahamas I look surprisingly troubled. I am trying to figure out the size of the swell and the prevailing wind direction from 10,000ft up in the air. For the last week I have been obsessively refreshing the forecast page for Cat Island, hoping that a
  
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• On the run from the armed cattle rustlers of rural Kenya – in pictures

  20-06-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As drought grips parts of Kenya, cattle theft has become increasingly violent, with people forced to take refuge from the gun-toting bandits who steal livestockRustlers, bandits and gun runners: the gangs vying for cattle in KenyaAll photographs: Will Swanson Continue reading...
  
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• How do we build an inclusive culture for disabled cyclists?

  20-06-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A new survey confirms the use of bicycles as mobility aids and the frustration felt when disabled cyclists are told to dismountLast week, my charity Wheels for Wellbeing published the results of a national survey of disabled cyclists which is, to our knowledge, the first of its kind. The results largely confirmed our suspicions, including that disabled cyclists – though part of our cycling culture – remain excluded from it in a number of ways. Continue reading...
  
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• Worst global coral bleaching event eases, as experts await next one

  20-06-2017 07:14 via theguardian.com
  
  US researchers believe worst event on record is ending but fear coral won’t recover in time before oceans warm againThe worst coral bleaching event in recorded history, which has hit every major coral region on Earth since 2014, appears to be coming to an end, with scientists now worrying how long reefs will have to recover before it happens again. After analysing satellite and model data, and finding bleaching in the Indian ocean no longer appeared widespread, the US National Oceanographi
  
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• Ten more elephants poisoned by poachers in Zimbabwe

  20-06-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The elephants were killed in the Hwange national park by what has become a common means of poachingTen elephants, including a mother and her young calf, have been found poisoned in and around Zimbabwe’s premier game reserve, Hwange national park. Six of the animals died in the south of the park last week; some had their tusks hacked off. The others were found outside the northern sector of the park in state forestry land.Park rangers responded quickly. A bucket of poison was found near the
  
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• This tree was young when Culloden was fought

  20-06-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Aigas Field Centre, Beauly, Highlands I am struck by the way the willow expresses the richness entailed in a drawn-out deathJust 10 minutes down the valley from this outstanding educational institute is the largest goat willow in Britain. The veteran is tucked away at the roadside amid a line of alders and so sunk in a deep and almost subaquatic gloom that you could easily miss it. A visit also requires a minor girding of loins to brave the midge-laden atmosphere, although meeting the tree on in
  
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