Environment news

• Kingfisher gives a picture of many hues: Country diary 100 years ago

  02-07-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 7 July 1917SURREY
  Helped by moisture from the north downs, the river to-day runs higher, swirling along by the tall grasses and the loosestrife, bending reeds, and flags, flowing above the few yellow blooms on the near banks, and lifting “water-blobs” like small boats, which rock a little while the tide runs in. Kingfishers on the wing show now of a deep, now of a pale blue as a momentary light strikes from the sun. They perch on a s
  
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• Save us from tree-less asphalt deserts | Letters

  02-07-2017 21:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Phil Allen on Northern Ireland’s priceless natural assets, Paul Townsend on Pope Francis’s plea for the environment, and Philip Bisatt on the absence of trees from British town planningRe your editorial on the Great Barrier Reef and “the values that money can’t measure” (29 June), Dieter Helm’s “natural capital” approach recognises that some assets are literally priceless and must be maintained.As an example, the drainage path of the river Bann is
  
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• Stephen Hawking at 75: Trump and climate change

  02-07-2017 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  After President Trump withdrew from a climate agreement, Prof Hawking warns of the threat from global warming.
  
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• Hawking: Climate change a 'great danger'

  02-07-2017 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  After President Trump withdrew from a climate agreement, Prof Hawking warns of the threat from global warming.
  
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• Hawking says Trump's climate stance could damage Earth

  02-07-2017 18:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Stephen Hawking warns over Donald Trump's climate policy in a BBC interview marking his 75th birthday.
  
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• The new west: why Republicans blocked public land management

  02-07-2017 18:19 via theguardian.com
  
  As ‘permanent tourists’ move to the western US, the oil and gas-captured Republican party is fighting to keep locals out of managing public landsA year ago, residents of Yucca Valley, California, along with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and US Forest Service officials, filled the town’s community center for a public meeting about the Sand to Snow National Monument. Designated early in 2016 by Barack Obama – and now under review for resizing by the Trump administration &
  
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• Chinese rocket launch fails one hour after lift-off

  02-07-2017 17:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A powerful rocket, the Long March-5 Y2, failed an hour after lift-off from Hainan island.
  
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• UK will ban foreign fishing after leaving EU, says Gove – video

  02-07-2017 14:35 via theguardian.com
  
  Michael Gove says the UK will be ‘taking back control’ of its waters and will ‘decide the terms of access’ for foreign fishing after leaving the EU. Speaking on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show, the environment secretary announces foreign fishing will be banned upon the withdrawal from the London fisheries convention, an arrangement that allows other countries to fish in British watersWatch the full episode on the BBC iPlayerMichael Gove mounts defence of university tuit
  
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• UK to 'take back control' of waters after exiting from fishing convention

  02-07-2017 12:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Michael Gove announces withdrawal from London fisheries convention, but experts say sustainable fishing is ‘much more than which country fishes where’The government has announced its withdrawal from an arrangement that allows foreign countries to fish in British waters, with environment secretary Michael Gove claiming that the UK was “taking back control”.On Monday ministers will trigger withdrawal from the London fisheries convention, signed in 1964 before the UK joined
  
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• UK to 'take back control' of waters after exiting fishing convention

  02-07-2017 12:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Michael Gove announces withdrawal from London fisheries convention and claims leaving EU fisheries policy will be good for environmentThe government has announced its withdrawal from an arrangement that allows other countries to fish in British waters. The environment secretary, Michael Gove, claimed the UK was “taking back control”.On Monday ministers will trigger withdrawal from the London fisheries convention, signed in 1964 before the UK joined the European Union, to start the tw
  
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• Russia begins cleaning up the Soviets' top-secret nuclear waste dump

  02-07-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  When the Soviet Union collapsed a vast store of spent nuclear fuel was abandoned in the Russian Arctic – an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Decades later an international clean-up has finally begunAs the Rossita pulled away from the pier at Andreyeva Bay, sounding a long boom of its horn, a military band struck up a jaunty march. On board the ship were nine sealed metal casks, each four metres high and weighing 45 tonnes, containing canisters of spent nuclear fuel. Dozens of Russ
  
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• The eco guide to the repair economy

  02-07-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Taking possessions to be repaired – bicycles, clothes, shoes, anything – instead of throwing them out and replacing them is green goldAn unassuming repair shop might not look like a major disruptive force. But extending the lifespan of your possessions by getting them fixed is one of the most effective green direct actions available.The cycling community is at the forefront of the repair economy Continue reading...
  
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• UK to withdraw from international fishing arrangement

  02-07-2017 02:54 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ministers argue ending the arrangement will help the UK take back control of access to its waters.
  
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• Boy, 11, shoots charging bear to save fishing party in Alaska

  02-07-2017 02:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Elliot Clark was walking through woods with three family members and three dogs when the bear charged themQuick action from an 11-year-old boy saved a fishing party from a charging brown bear, Alaska state troopers said.Elliot Clark was walking through the woods near Game Creek with three family members and three dogs when the bear came out and charged them, the Juneau Empire reported. Continue reading...
  
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• Photographer Ryo Minemizu finds the secret world of plankton

  02-07-2017 01:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Japanese underwater photographer Ryo Minemizu has photographed the plentiful but often ignored residents of the ocean.
  
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• Nightingales flourish but why is ‘rewilding’ the countryside controversial?

  02-07-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Conservationists admit the word is divisive, particularly among farmersJust down the road from Gatwick, the neatly hedged English countryside gives way to an exuberant, utterly alien-looking landscape. Arable fields are obliterated by dense thickets of sallow. Eight metre-wide blackthorn hedges spill into flowery meadows. Wild pigs and red deer run rampant through ragwort, thistles and other weeds. The air is alive with birdsong rarely heard in Britain today – spectacular bursts of nightin
  
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