Environment news

• Eyes on Nature: How Satellite Imagery Is Transforming Conservation Science

  04-07-2017 21:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  High-resolution earth imagery has provided ecologists and conservationists with a dynamic new tool that is enabling everything from more accurate counting of wildlife populations to rapid detection of deforestation, illegal mining, and other changes in the landscape.
  
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• How Australia bungled climate policy to create a decade of disappointment | Mark Butler

  04-07-2017 20:00
  
  Unlike the UK, Australia has never had climate consensus – and it’s been costly, argues Labor frontbencher Mark Butler in an extract from his book, Climate WarsIn the lead-up to the 2015 general election in the United Kingdom, the leaders of the three major parties sat down together and signed a statement on climate change policy that would seem unimaginable to Australians. They agreed that “climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world today” and und
  
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• 'Brightest minds' key to future science success

  04-07-2017 19:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The new research funding body sets out its vision for the future amid the changing world of science.
  
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• Daughter of murdered Honduran activist survives armed attack

  04-07-2017 18:33
  
  Assault on daughter of environmentalist Berta Cáceres, who leads indigenous rights group, heightens fears of violence against campaigners in HondurasThe daughter of the murdered Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres has survived an armed attack, just weeks after being named leader of the indigenous rights organisation formerly led by her mother.
  Bertha Zuñiga, 26, was attacked along with two other members of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organisations of Hond
  
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• Misunderstood molluscs: five reasons to love slugs

  04-07-2017 15:43
  
  The slug has an impressive physiology, engages in acrobatic sex and is a handy scavenger of waste – TV naturalist Chris Packham is right to stick up for themSlugs are much maligned. Having the temerity to wear their slime on the outside of their bodies, they are about as far removed from our notion of cute and cuddly as is possible without being tapeworms. But they are misunderstood and persecuted beyond necessity – with ecological knock-on effects for the slow-worms, thrushes, hedge
  
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• Scientists explain ancient Rome's long-lasting concrete

  04-07-2017 14:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers unlock the chemistry of Roman concrete which has resisted the elements for thousands of years.
  
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• Giant croc had teeth like a T. rex

  04-07-2017 14:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers have described new fossils belonging to an extinct crocodile-like creature that had a set of serrated teeth like those of a T. rex.
  
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• I pick up plastic waste to save it from landfill. It's lonely but worth it

  04-07-2017 12:59
  
  In my single-handed fight I have collected 180,000 items – 50 pieces of litter a day for 10 years. If only the world didn’t find this weird Who’s that weirdo? Sadly, the answer is me. I can feel the question following me as I dive into the gutter or duck around the feet of my fellow Londoners to sweep up the bottles and cans and newspapers they have abandoned.The question hasn’t changed in the the decade or so that I’ve been waging what seems a lone fight against th
  
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• Trump's alarming environmental rollback: what's been scrapped so far

  04-07-2017 12:00
  
  Since January, the White House, Congress and EPA have engineered a dizzying reversal of regulations designed to protect the environment and public healthDonald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate deal may have followed months of anguished division amongst his closest advisers, but his administration has proceeded with quiet efficiency in its dismantling of other major environmental policies.The White House, Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency have doveta
  
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• Is inequality bad for the environment?

  04-07-2017 11:41
  
  From buying stuff to eating meat to wasting water, there is growing evidence that countries with a bigger gap between rich and poor do more harm to the planet and its climate, writes Danny Dorling
  That equality matters in terms of health and happiness has been clear for some years. But it is also better for the environment. The evidence (which is still emerging) suggests the most unequal affluent countries contribute more to climate change via pollution than their more equal counterparts.They ma
  
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• Extreme ice on Canada's east coast – in pictures

  04-07-2017 08:11
  
  Warming temperatures caused perilous ice up to eight metres thick to drift south from the Arctic to clog the coasts of Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec. It trapped boats and ferries as late as June, with Canadian scientists blaming climate change. These dramatic photos capture the rare event. All photographs by Louis Helbig unless otherwise credited Continue reading...
  
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• Unique coral reef at risk as oil companies plan to drill near Amazon river

  04-07-2017 08:00
  
  Oil companies planning to drill near mouth of the river have calculated that the ecosystem has a 30% chance of being affected in the event of a spillOil companies planning to drill near a vast coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon river have calculated that the unique ecosystem has a 30% chance of being affected in the event of an oil spill.Related: 'We are rewriting the textbooks': first dives to Amazon coral reef stun scientistsContinue reading...
  
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• Amazon coral reef at risk of damage if oil spills near Amazon river

  04-07-2017 08:00
  
  Oil companies planning to drill near mouth of the river have calculated that the unique ecosystem has a 30% chance of being affected in the event of a spillOil companies planning to drill near a vast coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon river have calculated that the unique ecosystem has a 30% chance of being affected in the event of an oil spill.Related: 'We are rewriting the textbooks': first dives to Amazon coral reef stun scientistsContinue reading...
  
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• UK research chief 'will not direct science'

  04-07-2017 07:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The new head of UK research has said that he won't centrally direct scientific research.
  
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• Tackle UK's plastic bottle problem with money-back scheme, ministers told

  04-07-2017 07:00
  
  Opposition parties increase pressure for deposit return initiative to boost recycling and keep litter off streets and beachesThe UK government is under growing pressure to introduce a money-back return scheme for plastic bottles, in order to tackle huge volumes of waste in a country where 400 bottles are sold every second.Opposition parties have called on ministers to introduce a deposit return scheme that experts say would drastically reduce the number of plastic bottles littering streets and s
  
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• Stream of consciousness in a marshy wonderland

  04-07-2017 06:30
  
  Buxton, Derbyshire One summer we dammed the brook by the bridge where the dippers bred and swam with the tiddler troutHogshaw Brook, which runs below my late mother’s house, is part of the very first landscape in my story as a naturalist. Every night when I went to bed, I’d hear its ceaseless journey to join the river Wye. I remember one year how we dammed it by the bridge where the dippers bred, and its four-inch flow rose eventually up to the heaving chest of my nine-year-old self.
  
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• Clean energy target 'best deal that coal will get', says NSW energy minister

  04-07-2017 05:49
  
  Don Harwin tells Committee for Economic Development of Australia the ‘self-indulgent climate culture war’ should endThe Liberal New South Wales energy minister has delivered a speech marking a sharp departure from his federal colleagues saying the coal-fired power industry should accept the clean energy target that will see the industry close in the coming decades as “the best deal that coal will get”.He also ridiculed claims that expanding gas exploration in NSW was the
  
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• Chris Packham: learning to love slugs will help garden wildlife bloom

  04-07-2017 01:01
  
  BBC Springwatch host urges gardeners to manage molluscs without killing them or risk losing hedgehogs and song thrushesThe naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham has advised the nation to encourage the ecosystem of their gardens by ceasing to kill slugs.Extolling the virtues of tolerance, Packham said “draconian choices” like “I don’t want slugs and snails to eat my plants” puts the gardener at risk of losing other wildlife such as hedgehogs, slowworms and song th
  
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