Environment news

• Volvo to Drop Combustion Engines and Take All its Cars Electric in 2019

  05-07-2017 23:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Swedish-based carmaker, Volvo, will build only electric or hybrid-electric cars beginning in 2019, making it the first big auto company to abandon conventional gasoline-powered engines. The legendary auto manufacturer, now a wholly owned subsidiary of a Chinese company, had earlier set a goal of selling one million electric cars and hyrids by 2025. “This is how we are going to do it,” President and CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement. 
  
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• Theresa May to discuss Paris accord with Donald Trump at G20

  05-07-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  PM will use summit meeting with US president to say climate change agreement doesn’t need renegotiationTheresa May will raise the issue of climate change with Donald Trump this weekend when the pair meet for the first time since she lost her majority in the general election. They will talk at the G20 summit in Hamburg, which runs on Friday and Saturday.The two leaders will hold a formal bilateral meeting, at which the prime minister plans to tell the US president she does not believe the P
  
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• Reconciling predictions of climate change

  05-07-2017 21:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  Harvard University researchers have resolved a conflict in estimates of how much the Earth will warm in response to a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
  
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• Air quality: Challenge against government plan rejected

  05-07-2017 20:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The case was brought over cutting levels of nitrogen dioxide.
  
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• China presents Germany with two giant pandas – video report

  05-07-2017 20:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Chinese president Xi Jinping officially presents two giant pandas to Berlin’s zoo on Wednesday. German chancellor Angela Merkel said the bamboo-munching newcomers would be special ambassadors for the two countries. The pandas, Meng Meng and Jiao Qing, landed in Berlin on June 24 and have been settling in at the zoo since then, out of public view.Panda fever grips Berlin on Chinese president’s trip to Germany
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• Nuclear is to wind as Betamax is to Netflix – why Hinkley Point C is a turkey | Letters

  05-07-2017 20:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Christopher Jessop on why the UK is still backing nuclear power as others dump it; Andrew Warren on how energy efficiency can save us from the ‘energy gap’; Brian Price on the inaccuracy of a 2007 prediction by the head of EDFYou report (4 July) that the cost of Hinkley C power station has just bumped up £1.5bn, and its completion date slipped 15 months. Notwithstanding, pro-nuclear politicians will assure us that it still represents good value for the consumer, despite th
  
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• Tasty solution to the signal crayfish problem | Brief letters

  05-07-2017 20:40 via theguardian.com
  
  Mike Ashley’s ‘worth’ | American signal crayfish | String theory | Bacon sandwiches | Undergarments | Corbyn on violinThe word “earn” has become meaningless in today’s society, the word “get” being far more appropriate. In the same spirit, please could I urge you to refrain from repeating the misleading use of “worth” when referring to individuals and their personal wealth (Front page, 4 July). Mike Ashley is apparently &ldquo
  
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• Plan bee: parliament to produce honey to sell in shop and give to dignitaries

  05-07-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Parliamentary triangle is ideal for bees because Canberra’s centre is relatively free from pollution and has a good range of plantsIt is a fact that Canberra has its fair share of honey-tongued politicians but parliament is about to produce its very own product.Three beehives have been installed in the grounds around Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra to produce honey for sale in the shop and to give as gifts for visiting dignitaries.Continue reading...
  
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• Loan to Adani by infrastructure fund could be unlawful, says former clean energy head

  05-07-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Oliver Yates says any taxpayer money facilitating the proposed Carmichael coalmine carry reputational risks for the governmentAny loan the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif) gives to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine project would likely be unlawful, according to the former head of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which operated under an almost identical mandate.Naif, which was set up to give $5bn of concessional loans to support the development of northern Australia,
  
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• Hopes of mild climate change dashed by new research

  05-07-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Planet could heat up far more than hoped as new work shows temperature rises measured over recent decades don’t fully reflect global warming already in the pipelineHopes that the world’s huge carbon emissions might not drive temperatures up to dangerous levels have been dashed by new research. The work shows that temperature rises measured over recent decades do not fully reflect the global warming already in the pipeline and that the ultimate heating of the planet could be even wors
  
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• Volvo signals carmakers' growing confidence in an electric future

  05-07-2017 19:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Take-up of electric and hybrid cars has disappointed so far but Swedish firm’s chief executive says industry is changing fastVolvo’s decision to exclusively build electrified or hybrid cars is the beginning of the end of the company’s relationship with fossil fuels, according to one motoring organisation.One Swedish carmaker starting down the road to a zero emissions future will not solve global warming alone. But the whole automotive industry following suit would begin to make
  
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• Bringing nature into your backyard

  05-07-2017 19:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How urban gardens are connecting with nature to bring wildlife into the city.
  
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• Flying ants distract players at Wimbledon

  05-07-2017 18:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga complains insects were ‘in my nose, in my hair’ while Sam Querrey says he raised problem with umpireSwarms of flying ants have invaded Wimbledon, distracting players who were forced to swat them away.American Sam Querrey, the No 24 seed, dropped a set as the insects plagued Court 18, where he eventually saw off the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili in four sets. “If I had won that set, it probably wouldn’t have bugged as much,” he said. Continue readi
  
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• Is sea spray losing its sparkle?

  05-07-2017 18:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  Atmospheric aerosols are tiny particles that scatter and absorb sunlight but also influence climate indirectly through their role in cloud formation. One of the largest sources of aerosols is sea spray which is produced over the world’s oceans. Understanding how these particles take up water from the atmosphere, their so-called hygroscopicity, is important because it determines how much sunlight they reflect and how well they can form clouds.
  
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• Latest legal challenge to Tory air pollution plans fails

  05-07-2017 15:14 via theguardian.com
  
  High court instructs ministers to publish full proposals by the end of JulyThe government has won the latest court challenge over the UK’s air pollution crisis.Environmental lawyers ClientEarth had argued that ministers’ draft proposals to improve air quality – which contributes to tens of thousands of deaths each year – were unlawful. Continue reading...
  
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• Decoding life under our waters to ensure species' survival

  05-07-2017 15:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  Four hundred million lines of text: that’s how much data is in a single gene-sequencing file when Scott Pavey’s team receives it. If you wanted to scan it manually, and generously assume it would take one second per line to look at, it would take you 12 and a half years of reading around the clock to get through it all.
  
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• Volunteers will need to help preserve London's parks as funding is withdrawn – report

  05-07-2017 14:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Volunteer army should act as caretakers and local authorities should consider crowdsourcing and philanthropy as alternative means of funding the capital’s green spaces, report saysAn army of green volunteers should be recruited across London to protect and preserve parks as some local authorities plan to withdraw all funding by 2020.Parks and green spaces make up half of the capital, but they face an uncertain future as funding is cut and their management is taken over by a diverse collect
  
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• All Volvo cars to be electric or hybrid from 2019

  05-07-2017 13:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Landmark move as first big manufacturer says it will stop making vehicles solely powered by internal combustion engineAll cars sold by Volvo from 2019 onwards will be battery-powered, in what the company called a “historic end” to building models that only have an internal combustion engine.Between 2019 and 2021, the firm will launch five 100% electric car models, and ensure the rest of its conventional petrol and diesel range offers a hybrid engine of some form. It is the first majo
  
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• Only the Tories can save our bees – by banning pesticides now | Hannah Lownsborough

  05-07-2017 13:16 via theguardian.com
  
  Research has proved insecticides are a key culprit behind the decline of bees. People power, with this new evidence, can take on the agribusiness giants• Hannah Lownsbrough is executive director of SumOfUsIt’s not often that a story starting with two global pesticides giants funding a huge research study ends with the same study reporting findings that could wipe out the profit margins of the corporations in question. But that is exactly the move that Syngenta and Bayer might just hav
  
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• Why the Republican Party's climate policy obstruction is indefensible | Dana Nuccitelli

  05-07-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It’s unscientific, fails basic risk management, is bad for the economy, and immoralTwo weeks ago, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) had an exchange with Trump’s Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry about climate change. Continue reading...
  
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• Shark Drunk and A Sea Monster’s Tale review – the lure of an astonishing fish

  05-07-2017 09:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Morten Strøksnes is in search of a Greenland while Colin Speedie in mesmerised by the basker. Philip Hoare considers a new kind of shark feverIt is the ancientness of sharks that helps to enthrall and appal us. The sly, sideways sway of their whiplash bodies; the nerve-sharp signifier of their angular fins; the sense of something impossibly old, and possibly malignant. Sharks have been around for 400m years, and collectively, these cartilaginous creatures sum up all that is frighteni
  
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• Fracking inquiry launched after Blackpool tremors

  05-07-2017 08:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Investigation to look at how technique can affect drinking water as well as public attitudesScientists will investigate how fracking can affect drinking water and its role in earthquake tremors of the kind caused by shale gas operations near Blackpool, as part of a taxpayer-funded £8m research project.The programme, backed by the Natural Environment Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council, will examine hydraulic fracturing’s environmental impacts on land, water and
  
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• Bone to pick: volunteers invited to rebuild 157-year-old whale skeleton

  05-07-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Whale Weekender at Grant Zoology Museum calls on public to clean then reassemble bones of 8-metre mammalThe public is invited to help reassemble a giant jigsaw in a London museum, 157 years after two Somerset fishermen went out to catch a “great fish” and brought back a northern bottlenosed whale more than eight metres (26ft) long.Their catch was a local sensation: the carcass went on a west country tour then the skeleton was displayed for years hanging from the ceiling of the museum
  
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• Inquiry into effects of fracking launched after Blackpool tremors

  05-07-2017 07:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Investigation is part of an £8m research project examining impacts on land, water and air of the extraction techniqueScientists will investigate how fracking can affect drinking water and its role in earthquake tremors of the kind caused by shale gas operations near Blackpool, as part of a taxpayer-funded £8m research project.The programme, backed by the Natural Environment Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council, will examine hydraulic fracturing’s environmen
  
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• Sadiq Khan pledged to help cyclists – so why is he such a stick in the wheel?

  05-07-2017 07:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Subverting superhighways with sorry quietways; preserving motor vehicle capacity even if it brings conflict with cyclists – the mayor must do betterDo you remember that Blackadder scene where General Melchett proudly unveils a map representing the territory gained by his troops? Dimensions: 17 sq ft. Scale: actual size. London mayor Sadiq Khan’s cycling programme – formerly Britain’s bike flagship – is starting to feel a bit like that.More than a year since he took
  
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• Exotic paradox in the herbaceous borders

  05-07-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Powis Castle, Wales A dangerous beauty stolen by European adventurers and hinting of vast plains a world way The anchor plant, Colletia paradoxa, with its geometric architecture, looks like trouble among the summer flowers in the herbaceous borders on the terrace gardens. And yet its very oddness makes it fit with an assembly of plants few, if any, of which would grow together in the wild. A paradox indeed.Plants from the Americas, the far east and Europe grow cheek by jowl according to an aesth
  
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• G20 public finance for fossil fuels 'is four times more than renewables'

  05-07-2017 06:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Soft loans, subsidies and World Bank funding mean nations are ‘talking out of both sides of their mouths’ on climate, says report The G20 nations provide four times more public financing to fossil fuels than to renewable energy, a report has revealed ahead of their summit in Hamburg, where Angela Merkel has said climate change will be at the heart of the agenda.The authors of the report accuse the G20 of “talking out of both sides of their mouths” and the summit faces the
  
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• New Zealand's possum war: 'barbaric' drowning of babies at school fair sparks outcry

  05-07-2017 04:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Rights group says widespread practice to kill pest species is desensitising children to acts of violence An animal rights group is calling for an end to New Zealand’s “barbaric” war on possums after joeys were drowned in a bucket of water at a school fundraiser.
  It said children were becoming desensitised to violence as a result of the method of killing an animal that is considered a pest in New Zealand. “It was clearly inhumane, it was appalling that children were witnes
  
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• Raw waste water use on farms is '50% higher' than estimated

  05-07-2017 04:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Farmers are using far greater amounts of untreated waste water on crops, posing risks to public health.
  
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• Climate Change Authority loses last climate scientist | Planet Oz

  05-07-2017 02:35 via theguardian.com
  
  David Karoly says without an expert to replace him, the CCA will struggle to fulfil its legal mandateImagine, if you will, a government board to champion Australian arts without any artists on it, or an agency to advise on medical research without any medical researchers. Or perhaps even, imagine a government authority set up to provide expertise on climate policy without any actual climate scientists. Continue reading...
  
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• Air pollution issues go back to court

  05-07-2017 00:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Environmental legal group ClientEarth says minsters failed to conduct their recent public consultation on clean air properly.
  
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