Environment news

• Stanford computer scientists develop an algorithm that diagnoses heart arrhythmias with cardiologist-level accuracy

  14-07-2017 23:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new algorithm developed by Stanford computer scientists can sift through hours of heart rhythm data generated by some wearable monitors to find sometimes life-threatening irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias. The algorithm, detailed in an arXiv paper, performs better than trained cardiologists, and has the added benefit of being able to sort through data from remote locations where people don’t have routine access to cardiologists.
  
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• Four Out of 10 Americans Live in ''Double Whammy'' Climate Hot Spots Where Smog and Ragweed Threaten Health

  14-07-2017 22:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  Four out of 10 Americans live in “double whammy” counties where unhealthy smog and pollen-producing ragweed– both tied to the growing climate crisis – combine to threaten respiratory health, a Natural Resources Defense Council mapping project released today shows. NRDC’s analysis found air quality “hot spots” in states and areas with the greatest percentages of people living in areas with both ragweed and unhealthy ozone days. Ironically, Washington
  
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• NOAA, partners predict significant summer harmful algal bloom for western Lake Erie

  14-07-2017 21:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  NOAA and its research partners predict that western Lake Erie will experience a significant harmful algal bloom this summer, potentially reaching levels last seen in 2013 and 2014, though smaller than the record bloom of 2015.This year’s bloom is expected to measure 7.5 on the severity index, but could range between six and 9.5. An index above five indicates a potentially harmful bloom. The severity index is based on a bloom’s biomass – the amount of its harmful algae – o
  
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• Climate change: Biodiversity rescues biodiversity in a warmer world

  14-07-2017 21:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  The last month was recorded as the warmest June ever in many parts of the world. Last year, 2016, was the warmest year in the modern temperature record. Our planet is constantly heating up. This poses direct threats to humans, like extreme weather events and global sea-level rise, but scientists are concerned that it may also affect our well-being indirectly via changes in biodiversity. The variety of life, from plants and animals to microorganisms, is the basis of many services ecosystems provi
  
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• Feinstein Institute Identifies Potential Cause for Lupus

  14-07-2017 20:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Leading rheumatologist and Feinstein Institute for Medical Research Professor Betty Diamond, MD, may have identified a protein as a cause for the adverse reaction of the immune system in patients suffering from lupus. A better understanding of how the immune system becomes overactive will help lead to more effective treatments for lupus and potentially other autoimmune diseases. These findings were published in Nature Immunology. 
  
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• The Guardian view on biodiversity: the lightness of the whale | Editorial

  14-07-2017 19:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Experts warn that Earth’s sixth mass extinction has begun – and humans are to blame. Can Hope help us to confront biological annihilation?A single blue whale, even with a skeleton of 4.5 tonnes, weighs imperceptibly in the world’s scales when biological annihilation is set on the other side. Yet perhaps the “new” 126-year-old star of the entrance hall of Natural History Museum in London may play some tiny part in tipping the balance. By replacing “Di
  
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• Chinese lakes less polluted after sanitation clean-up

  14-07-2017 19:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  Pollution levels in many Chinese lakes have declined somewhat from high levels in the past decade, helped by billion-dollar investments in urban sewers and waste water treatment.
  
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• Study: Mountaintop Coal Mining Causes Appalachian Rivers to Run "Consistently Saltier"

  14-07-2017 19:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  Mountaintop-removal coal mining causes many streams and rivers in Appalachia to run consistently saltier for up to 80 percent of the year, a new study by researchers at the University of Wyoming and Duke University finds.
  
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• Guardian readers making Britain beautiful again | Letters

  14-07-2017 19:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Letter writers share their stories of picking up litter and offer suggestions how others might be encouraged to follow their leadIn our village, we have seen both the potential and the limitations of people-led efforts to tackle litter (Letters, 13 July). The parish council and the local transition village group have worked together to both inform people about the wider environmental problems of litter, especially plastic, and to develop a network of individuals who have undertaken to keep speci
  
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• The costs of coal storage and its impact on disadvantaged communities

  14-07-2017 19:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  While the negative health and environmental effects of mining and burning coal are well documented, simply transporting and storing coal can also adversely affect the health outcomes of individuals living near coal-fired power plants.
  
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• NASA Gives Hurricane Fernanda a Close-Up

  14-07-2017 18:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  Hurricane Fernanda is moving through the deep tropics and there’s nothing in its way to prevent it from becoming a major hurricane. NASA’s Terra satellite took a closer look at the strengthening storm.
  
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• Fracking activists have a right to protest. We must support them | Jonathan Bartley

  14-07-2017 18:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Across the world, environmental protesters, like those in Lancashire, are putting their bodies on the line. In the future we will remember them as heroes• Jonathan Bartley is co-leader of the Green party
  In every corner of the globe people are taking action on climate change as governments refuse to tackle the greatest threat we face. In the US, the Standing Rock protesters stood tall against the Keystone pipeline. In Brazil, brave defenders are standing in the way of the destruction of the
  
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• FSU researcher makes deep-sea coral reef discovery in depths of North Pacific

  14-07-2017 17:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists have long believed that the waters of the Central and Northeast Pacific Ocean were inhospitable to deep-sea scleractinian coral, but a Florida State University professor’s discovery of an odd chain of reefs suggests there are mysteries about the development and durability of coral colonies yet to be uncovered.
  
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• 'Beam me up, Scotty'

  14-07-2017 17:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Chinese scientists have "teleported" a photon particle to a satellite - could humans be next?
  
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• The last survivors on Earth

  14-07-2017 17:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  The world’s most indestructible species, the tardigrade, an eight-legged micro-animal, also known as the water bear, will survive until the Sun dies, according to a new Oxford University collaboration.
  
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• Unabated climate change would reverse the development gains in Asia: report

  14-07-2017 16:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  Unabated climate change would bring devastating consequences to countries in Asia and the Pacific, which could severely affect their future growth, reverse current development gains, and degrade quality of life, according to a report produced by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
  
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• Electric cars, mass extinction, and a swimming elephant – green news roundup

  14-07-2017 16:44 via theguardian.com
  
  The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...
  
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• Have you spotted a butterfly in the UK? Share your photographs

  14-07-2017 15:39 via theguardian.com
  
  If you’ve spotted a butterfly in the UK, and have been lucky enough to take a photograph of it, we’d like you to share your experience with usMore than three quarters of the UK’s butterflies have declined in the last 40 years, but some reports say this is an unusually good year for butterflies. Related: World’s largest butterfly survey aims to assess apparent spike in British numbersContinue reading...
  
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• Severe weather model predicted tornado's path hours before it formed

  14-07-2017 15:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  As severe weather brewed in the Texas panhandle late in the afternoon of May 16,  NOAA’s National Weather Service forecasters alerted residents in parts of western Oklahoma about the potential for large hail and damaging tornadoes that evening, particularly in the area around Elk City.Ninety minutes later, a dangerous, rain-wrapped EF2 tornado struck the small town. It killed one, injured eight and destroyed about 200 homes and more than 30 businesses.  
  
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• 'Truly unique': lioness adopts and nurses leopard cub

  14-07-2017 13:22 via theguardian.com
  
  No wild cat has ever been observed nursing a cub from another species – the event may be the result of the Tanzanian lioness having lost her own litterA lioness has been spotted nursing a tiny leopard cub in Tanzania, the first time a wild cat is known to have adopted a cub from another species.The five-year old lioness, called Nosikitok is closely monitored by conservationists in the Ngorongoro conservation area and is known to have had a litter of her own in mid to late June. Continue re
  
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• Exclusiva: investigaciones revelan que, en todo el mundo, están asesinando más que nunca a los defensores del medio ambiente

  14-07-2017 12:15 via theguardian.com
  
  Cada semana muere por causas violentas una media de cuatro ecologistas, guardas forestales y dirigentes indígenas, y en todo el mundo crece la sensación de que “cualquiera puede matar a los defensores del medio ambiente sin sufrir las consecuencias”Lean esta historia en inglés El año pasado fue el más peligroso de la historia para las personas que defienden las tierras de su comunidad, los recursos naturales y la fauna; las últimas investigac
  
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• States move towards clean energy, but Frydenberg says Coalition won't be rushed

  14-07-2017 10:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Three states and ACT to ask Australian Energy Markets Commission to do further work on implementing central plank of Finkel reviewQueensland, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory have taken the first step towards proceeding unilaterally with a new clean energy target, but the federal energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, insists the federal government will not be rushed.
  The Labor states will ask the Australian Energy Markets Commission to do further work on how the central
  
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• World’s largest butterfly survey aims to assess apparent spike in British numbers

  14-07-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Annual Big Butterfly Count urges wildlife lovers to help assess whether the insects are really returning to gardens this summerClouds of butterflies have been sighted in southern Britain this summer but wildlife lovers are being urged to help scientifically assess whether our insects are really bouncing back by joining the world’s largest butterfly survey. Continue reading...
  
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• Woolworths and Coles to phase out single-use plastic bags

  14-07-2017 06:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Australia’s two largest supermarket chains say they will stop using lightweight plastic bags and will offer reusable bags insteadSingle-use plastic bags will phased out from Woolworths and Coles stores across Australia. Woolworth Group announced on Friday morning that stores Australia-wide would phased out the use of plastic bags by July 2018.Continue reading...
  
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• Jewel-bright lizards look at home on one British isle

  14-07-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Ventnor Botanic Garden, Isle of Wight A balmy microclimate and a scrubland habitat support Britain’s oldest colony of wall lizardsIn mainland Britain the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) is considered an alien species, and concerns have been raised that competition from this robust and agile continental reptile may be hastening the decline of our rare native sand lizard (Lacerta agilis). The Isle of Wight colony is the longest established population of wall lizards in Britain and a ce
  
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• Facts matter, but stories can persuade us to change our world | Brigid Delaney's diary

  14-07-2017 03:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Without the cooperation of our imaginations, we cannot tell stories about what is happening to our planet. This may be why we’ve been so slow to actThe most terrifying read of my year so far (amid stiff competition) goes to New York magazine’s piece this week on climate change. It’s all there, all the gruesome ways our planet is going to die, sooner than we think, and that people who are children now will, in their lifetime, face the unbearable misery of rising temperatures. Cr
  
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• Clean energy target: how the states might make it work

  14-07-2017 02:39 via theguardian.com
  
  Victoria and South Australia have suggested a states-led initiative if the federal government continues to stall on a clean energy target. Could it work? Australian states exasperated by federal government inaction on the key Finkel review recommendation of a clean energy target have indicated they might band together and go it alone if the federal Coalition does not provide the required leadership.Before Friday’s meeting of energy ministers, for which the federal government refused to put
  
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• Butterfly numbers facing 'vital' period - Sir David Attenborough

  14-07-2017 02:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Broadcaster Sir David Attenborough says species have suffered "significant declines" recently.
  
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• The farmer helping to cut cow farts

  14-07-2017 01:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How reducing the methane from cows is helping to fight climate change
  
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• The cynical and dishonest denial of climate change has to end: it's time for leadership | Gerry Hueston

  14-07-2017 01:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Absence of climate and energy policy has left Australia lagging dangerously behind, missing out on investment and facing major electricity disruptions.Gerry Hueston is chairperson of the Climate Council and former BP president
  Australia has enough renewable energy to power the country 500 times over. With South Australia a step closer to unveiling the largest lithium ion battery storage facility in the world, it is clear just how fast we can make the transition to large-scale renewables when the
  
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• Waste products not crops key to boosting UK biofuels

  14-07-2017 01:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The UK should focus on making fuel from chip fat, whiskey dregs and forest waste and not from crops like wheat
  
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• Gannet bonanza on Yorkshire cliffs

  14-07-2017 01:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A gannet bonanza is confirmed on the towering cliffs of Yorkshire by research from the RSPB.
  
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• Biofuels needed but some more polluting than fossil fuels, report warns

  14-07-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Royal Academy of Engineering report backs increased use of biofuels but says more should come from waste rather than food cropsBiofuel use needs to increase to help fight climate change as liquid fuels will be needed by aircraft and ships for many decades to come, finds a new report requested by the UK government. The Royal Academy of Engineering report says, however, that some biofuels, such as diesel made from food crops, have led to more emissions than those produced by the fossil fuels they
  
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• Biofuels need 'to be improved for battle against climate change'

  14-07-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Royal Academy of Engineering report backs increased use of biofuels but warns that some have been as polluting as fossil fuelsBiofuel use needs to increase to help fight climate change as liquid fuels will be needed by aircraft and ships for many decades to come, finds a new report requested by the UK government. The Royal Academy of Engineering report says, however, that some biofuels, such as diesel made from food crops, have led to more emissions than those produced by the fossil fuels they w
  
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