Environment news

• Dartmouth Study: Highway Salt Is Polluting Our Lakes

  12-07-2017 23:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Salt can be good, and it can also be bad. Sprinkled on food, it makes things tastier, but it may also raise your blood pressure. Spread on winter roads, it can make driving safer, but the melting runoff contaminates nearby lakes and ponds.In a study that gathered data from hundreds of lakes in the Northeast and the Midwest, a Dartmouth researcher and colleagues have found dramatic evidence of highway salt’s impact.
  
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• Slow Earthquakes Occur Continuously in the Alaska-Aleutian Subduction Zone

  12-07-2017 23:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  Seismologists at the University of California, Riverside studying earthquakes in the seismically and volcanically active Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone have found that “slow earthquakes” are occurring continuously, and could encourage damaging earthquakes.
  
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• NASA Sees Formation of Tropical Storm Fernanda in Eastern Pacific Ocean

  12-07-2017 23:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  The sixth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season formed near southwestern Mexico and quickly strengthened into Tropical Storm Fernanda. NASA’s Aqua satellite provided infrared imagery of the strengthening storm.
  
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• Climate change to deplete some US water basins, reduce irrigated crop yields

  12-07-2017 23:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new study by MIT climate scientists, economists, and agriculture experts finds that certain hotspots in the country will experience severe reductions in crop yields by 2050, due to climate change’s impact on irrigation.The most adversely affected region, according to the researchers, will be the Southwest. Already a water-stressed part of the country, this region is projected to experience reduced precipitation by midcentury. Less rainfall to the area will mean reduced runoff into water
  
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• Nature versus nurture of a growing human population | Letters

  12-07-2017 20:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Having fewer children is a no-brainer, write Robin Maynard and Jonathon Porritt. The overconsuming west must not blame the global south, says Christine Galavotti. It is ironic that Italy bears the brunt of the surge of ecological migrants, says Chris Brausch. Apocalyptic changes in the countryside go largely unnoticed, says John GreenIt is heartening to see the Guardian giving considered coverage to the issue of human population and its impacts upon our planet and the threat that continued popul
  
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• Let’s get rid of litter, one piece at a time | Letters

  12-07-2017 20:45 via theguardian.com
  
  How about a national network to link people who undertake to pick up just one piece of litter every time they go out, suggests Wendy HarveyWhat can we do about litter? It spoils our streets and countryside and ends up being washed out to sea, polluting our oceans. It frustrates and saddens many of us, and no one seems to know what to do about it. As soon as it is cleared up it reappears in a never-ending cycle. So here’s an idea: how about launching a positive-spirited national network to
  
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• I had that Queen Victoria in the back of my electric cab… | Brief letters

  12-07-2017 20:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Electric taxis | Pay caps | Unpaved gardens | Medieval monks | True north? | Coining it inHow welcome to see an electric taxi, and we should hail it by all means (Financial, 12 July). But is it the first? Far from it, apparently. Electric taxis first appeared in London at the end of the 19th century, but the “hummingbirds”, as they were known, were very quickly hounded off the road by their horse-drawn rivals. The London Electric Cab Company, which built them, went bust. See Rethink
  
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• 'The island is being eaten': how climate change is threatening the Torres Strait

  12-07-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In Boigu, part of Australia but just six kilometres from Papua New Guinea, roads are being washed into the seaTorres Strait residents face being forced from their homes by climate change, as their islands are lost to rising seas.On Boigu Island, the most northerly inhabited island in Australia, just six kilometres from Papua New Guinea, the community’s cemetery faces inundation and roads are being washed into the sea. A seawall installed to protect the community is already failing. Continu
  
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• Renewable power critic is chosen to head energy price review

  12-07-2017 19:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Government’s preferred choice of Oxford economist Dieter Helm is controversial owing to criticism of wind and solar powerAn academic who is a vocal critic of the price of renewable power is the government’s preferred choice to head a review of the financial cost of energy in the UK.Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford, has been chosen by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to carry out the review, the Guardian has learned. The Conservat
  
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• Swansea tidal lagoon review head Charles Hendry 'hopeful'

  12-07-2017 18:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  It is six months since an independent review backed a planned £1.3bn tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay.
  
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• Coke's recycled plastic bottle scheme criticised as PR spin by green groups

  12-07-2017 17:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Drinks giant’s proposals to reduce plastic waste are unambitious and vague, say some enviromental groupsCoca-Cola’s plan to reduce the millions of plastic bottles that end in the world’s oceans every day has been criticised by environmental groups as unambitious “PR spin”.The world’s biggest drinks brand, estimated to produce more than 100bn plastic bottles every year, raised its 2020 target for the amount of recycled plastic used in its bottles from 40% to 50
  
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• Why you might trust a quantum computer with secrets – even over the internet

  12-07-2017 17:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  Here's the scenario: you have sensitive data and a problem that only a quantum computer can solve. You have no quantum devices yourself. You could buy time on a quantum computer, but you don't want to give away your secrets. What can you do?
  
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• Most comprehensive database on past global changes is online

  12-07-2017 17:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  Climate scientists will now be able to more accurately study the pattern and causes of global surface temperature changes than was previously possible, thanks to a large international team of scientists contributing to PAGES (Past Global Changes), one of the University of Bern’s affiliated climate organizations.
  
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• France Will Ditch Gas and Diesel Cars by 2040

  12-07-2017 17:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Parisian streets will be a little quieter in 2040, the year France has set as a target for getting gas and diesel cars off the road. French officials are speaking out on the need to commit to environmental health, and this initiative accompanies other programs aimed at reducing the country’s carbon emissions.
  
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• So long, Dippy: museum's blue whale seeks to inspire love of living world

  12-07-2017 16:43 via theguardian.com
  
  Natural History Museum in London signals urgency of wildlife crisis by replacing dinosaur centrepiece with species alive today In the hot summer of 1976, when Richard Sabin was 10, he went on a trip with his Birmingham primary school to the Natural History Museum in London. Blown away by the scale of what he was seeing, the wide-eyed schoolboy was told by an attendant that if he wanted to see something really big he should make his way to the mammal hall, where the skeletons of a number of whale
  
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• Green groups call for overhaul of repeal bill to safeguard environment after Brexit

  12-07-2017 16:26 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners from organisations including Greenpeace, the National Trust and Friends of the Earth highlight major risks to environment if EU protections are dropped or dilutedEnvironmental campaigners with 8 million members between them are putting forward key amendments to the repeal bill to be published on Thursday to tackle the threat of Brexit leaving huge gaps in environmental protection in the UK.
  Campaigners from organisations including the RSPB, Client Earth, Greenpeace, the National Trus
  
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• London's first dockless hire bike scheme launches

  12-07-2017 15:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Obike have become the first dockless hire bike company to launch in the capital, following similar schemes in Manchester and Cambridge
  London’s first dockless hire bikes were launched on Wednesday morning in the first phase of what is expected to be a rapid rollout of the machines by Singapore-based company Obike to cities all across the UK.Obike – not to be confused with Mobike, which launched in Manchester exactly a month ago – delivered 400 of its bikes to the London borough
  
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• Protester hit by van at Cuadrilla's Lancashire fracking site – video

  12-07-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A video posted to YouTube shows a protester at Preston New Road fracking site in Lancashire being knocked down by a van leaving the drilling area. Following the incident police have beefed up security, providing 24/7 monitoring around the site, which has long been a focal point of anti-fracking protests Continue reading...
  
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• Every little recycled yoghurt pot helps – but how best can you help save the planet?

  12-07-2017 14:45 via theguardian.com
  
  A new study has crunched the numbers on efforts to fight climate change, from skipping holidays to ditching our cars. Here’s a guide to the (not always) easy ways to be greenIt’s easy to feel powerless in the face of new coal mines and shrinking rainforests in distant countries, but we also know that being green starts at home. We do what we can, right? But what really helps, and what is a drop in a warming ocean? A study by the Universities of Lund, Sweden, and British Columbia, Can
  
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• May warned not to 'cut off nose to spite face' as Tories revolt over Euratom

  12-07-2017 14:18 via theguardian.com
  
  MPs say leaving European nuclear treaty without replicating benefits could lead to ‘economically crushed’ communities The Conservative revolt over Theresa May’s plan to withdraw from the Euratom nuclear treaty has grown, with one former minister accusing the government of cutting off its nose to spite its face.A string of Tory MPs opposed leaving the body for nuclear cooperation during a Westminster Hall debate called by Labour’s Albert Owen, suggesting May has no Commons
  
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• Splitting the atom

  12-07-2017 14:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The government is about to set out its position on membership of Europe's nuclear regulator after Brexit.
  
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• Critic of renewable power to head government energy costs review

  12-07-2017 13:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Selection of Oxford University economist Dieter Helm may be controversial because of his criticism of wind and solar powerAn academic who is a vocal critic of the costs of renewable power has been selected by the government to head a landmark review of the cost of energy in the UK.Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford, has been chosen by the Department for Business, Industrial and Energy Strategy (BEIS) to carry out the review, the Guardian has learned. The Conservative manifesto
  
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• Police beef up security at Lancashire fracking site after protester is hit by van

  12-07-2017 13:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Cuadrilla drill site to be monitored 24/7 as Green MEP renews calls for reviewing guidance to police officers on how to deal with anti-fracking protests
  Security is being beefed up at a fracking site in Lancashire after a protester was hit by a van on Monday.A Youtube video posted immediately after the incident shows the protester, dressed in grey and black, trying to block a white van leaving the Preston New Road drill site.Continue reading...
  
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• Do the oceans need new rules?

  12-07-2017 13:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Why are scientists are worried about the open seas?
  
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• Doomsday narratives about climate change don't work. But here's what does | Victoria Herrmann

  12-07-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Feeling hopeless about a situation is cognitively associated with inaction. Instead of being defeatist, look to climate change heroes who are leading the way
  The title of David Wallance-Wells’ recent essay in New York Magazine is catchy, if not uncomfortable. “The Uninhabitable Earth: Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreck – sooner than you think.”The article asks us to peer beyond scientific reticence into a doomsday future. The a
  
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• Iceberg twice size of Luxembourg breaks off Antarctic ice shelf

  12-07-2017 11:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Satellite data confirms ‘calving’ of 5,800 sq km iceberg from Larsen C ice shelf, which has changed the shape of the Antarctic peninsulaA giant iceberg twice the size of Luxembourg has broken off an ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula and is now adrift in the Weddell Sea.Reported to be “hanging by a thread” last month, the trillion-tonne iceberg was found to have split off from the Larsen C section of the Larsen ice shelf on Wednesday morning after scientists examined th
  
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• Vast iceberg splits from Antarctic ice shelf – video explainer

  12-07-2017 11:50 via theguardian.com
  
  A giant section of an Antarctic ice shelf has finally broken off. The split in the Larsen C ice shelf of the Antarctic peninsula has released an iceberg 5,000 sq km in size – an area about a quarter of the size of WalesOne of largest icebergs ever recorded breaks off Antarctic ice shelfContinue reading...
  
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• Giant iceberg splits from Antarctic

  12-07-2017 10:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A block of ice a quarter the size of Wales calves from the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula.
  
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• Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children

  12-07-2017 06:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Next best actions are selling your car, avoiding flights and going vegetarian, according to study into true impacts of different green lifestyle choicesThe greatest impact individuals can have in fighting climate change is to have one fewer child, according to a new study that identifies the most effective ways people can cut their carbon emissions.The next best actions are selling your car, avoiding long flights, and eating a vegetarian diet. These reduce emissions many times more than common g
  
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• Butterfly signals a pause, for reflection

  12-07-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Wenlock Edge: Shropshire It’s easy to see how the comma butterfly got its English name, but devilishly hard to work out where the French one came fromI crept up on the butterfly as its wings flexed, pumping like delicate bellows, as it took in salts from dried dog urine. For a moment I thought it might be a fritillary – the upper sides of the wings were a rich orangey-brown with complex dark markings, the kind of colour unique to the old slide transparencies of Agfa film. Then it det
  
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• Auto industry fights back at plan to cut cars' greenhouse gas emissions

  12-07-2017 04:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Australian Automobile Association argues government plan will cost consumers more but government says petrol savings will offset any riseThe Australian car industry has tried to kill any government move to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars, arguing it would increase the cost to consumers and contradicting comprehensive government modelling.The government plans to introduce emissions standards for new cars, releasing a series of proposed targets in discussion papers and seeking input from in
  
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• Commentators who don't understand the grid should butt out of the battery debate | Ketan Joshi

  12-07-2017 04:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Criticising South Australia’s battery for not meeting peak demand is akin to raging at your smartphone because it can’t send a fax
  Ketan Joshi is a communications consultant for the renewable energy industry• Support our independent journalism and critical reporting on energy and the environment by giving a one-off or monthly contributionThe Australian electricity grid’s most recently announced extremity is a gargantuan battery system in South Australia, designed to bolste
  
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• 'Make new rules' to save the oceans

  12-07-2017 02:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  New rules are urgently needed to protect the open seas, scientists warn.
  
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• Can a robot help solve the Atlantic's lionfish problem?

  12-07-2017 01:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The invasive lionfish poses a number of threats in the Atlantic Ocean – can it be stopped by a robot?
  
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• Lark or night owl? Blame your ancestors

  12-07-2017 01:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Our ancestors could be to blame for the wide variety of human sleeping habits, from larks to night owls.
  
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• Do you live in the world's laziest country?

  12-07-2017 01:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists use smartphones to track and rank activity levels around the world.
  
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• Number of 'pollution incidents' rises for first time in five years

  12-07-2017 01:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A study by the Environment Agency found that number of pollution incidents rose by 160 to 1,902 in 2016The number of “pollution incidents” such as sewage spills reported by UK water companies has risen for the first time in five years, according to a new report.The study by the Environment Agency (EA) found that although the majority of the UK’s water companies came close to or exceeded their targets to improve water quality, the number of pollution incidents rose by 160 to 1,9
  
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