Environment news

• Suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers linked to climate change, study claims

  31-07-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Rising temperatures and the resultant stress on India’s agricultural sector may have contributed to increase in suicides over the past 30 years, research shows
  Climate change may have contributed to the suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers and farm workers over the past three decades, according to new research that examines the toll rising temperatures are already taking on vulnerable societies.Illustrating the extreme sensitivity of the Indian agricultural industry to spikes in temper
  
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• Engels’ view on the loss of public space | Letters

  31-07-2017 20:28 via theguardian.com
  Bob Dinn urges councils and mayors regulate private landlords’ restrictions on access and use of spaceThe contradictions of Friedrich Engels’ newly installed statue looking down on the private “public” space of Tony Wilson Place would not have escaped the young man living in 1840s Manchester. Privatisation of public land by stealth (The insidious creep of London’s pseudo-public land, 24 July) is subtly altering access to the city and its amenities. Ambiguous road ma
  
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• Defence knew of firefighting foam dangers at Queensland base in 1991, class action alleges

  31-07-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Defence says it became aware of toxic chemicals in soil and groundwater at Oakey in 2010 but Shine Lawyers allege they knew of potential risks much earlier
  Defence has known of potential dangers with its use of firefighting foam at a Queensland army base for more than two decades, a class action alleges. This month 450 people from the small town of Oakey, just west of Toowoomba, launched a class action against the defence department in the federal court.Continue reading...
  
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• How to avoid being bitten by a snake – and what to do if you are

  31-07-2017 18:44 via theguardian.com
  Summer is the peak season for attacks by the UK’s only venomous snake, the common European adder. We asked a toxicology expert for the dos and don’tsAs any six-year-old will tell you, there is only one venomous snake native to Britain: Vipera berus, AKA the common European adder. Still, it can give you a nasty bite. However, doctors have warned that bite victims are walking into a world of pain by not getting help soon enough.“I’m astonished by the number of people who kn
  
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• Climate change expected to increase premature deaths from air pollution

  31-07-2017 17:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill estimates that future climate change, if left unaddressed, is expected to cause roughly 60,000 deaths globally in the year 2030 and 260,000 deaths in 2100 due to climate change’s effect on global air pollution.The study, to appear in the July 31 advance online issue of Nature Climate Change, adds to growing evidence that the overall health effects of a changing climate are likely to be overwhelmingly negative. It is also the
  
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• Planet has just 5% chance of reaching Paris climate goal, study says

  31-07-2017 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Researchers find that economic, emissions and population trends point to very small chance Earth will avoid warming more than 2C by century’s endThere is only a 5% chance that the Earth will avoid warming by at least 2C come the end of the century, according to new research that paints a sobering picture of the international effort to stem dangerous climate change.Related: Bill Nye: 'You can shoot the messenger but climate is still changing'Continue reading...
  
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• Aardvarks' tragic fate points to worrying consequences for wildlife as a result of climate change

  31-07-2017 16:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  The aardvark, a highlight for anyone on a game-viewing African safari, will become increasingly rare as the world warms and dries, and the consequences go well beyond a decline in aardvark safari encounters.
  
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• How A Surge in Visitors Is Overwhelming America's National Parks

  31-07-2017 16:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  Zion National Park in southwestern Utah is the poster child for the crowding of America’s most hallowed natural places. With its soaring and magisterial red, dun, and white rock cliffs with grand names such as the Court of the Patriarchs and the Temple of Sinawava, Zion is at the top of the list of the nation’s most dramatic scenery.
  
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• Tesla Model 3 doesn't have a key – and seven other things we learned

  31-07-2017 15:17 via theguardian.com
  Elon Musk’s new mass market-aimed electric car has no directly visible speedometer, comes in two battery versions and isn’t a bad option for a sleepElon Musk revealed Tesla’s Model 3 is unlocked by a smartphone and doesn’t have a traditional key or fob among a host of other details at the delivery event for the first 30 mass-market electric cars over the weekend.
  As the Model 3 enters what Musk called “six months of manufacturing hell” as Tesla ramps up produc
  
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• Study finds nearly one bird per day dies in collision with campus buildings during migration season

  31-07-2017 15:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  Even though he grew up in an urban area surrounded by buildings, it wasn't until Omar Yossofzai took part in a study on migratory birds that he realized how many birds die daily after crashing into buildings.The fourth-year undergrad led a group of U of T Scarborough students to track fallen migratory birds colliding into campus buildings over a 21-day period last fall.
  
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• Small, deep-water Alaska sponge has molecules that selectively target and kill pancreatic tumor cells

  31-07-2017 15:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  Compared to its dazzling deep-sea coral neighbors, the green Latrunculia austini sponge is pretty drab. Dotted with craters and pitted by deep holes the golf-ball sized sponge is curious-looking rather than beautiful. But green Latrunculia’s unique chemical composition holds a promise much greater than mere beauty.
  
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• 2017 is so far the second-hottest year on record thanks to global warming | Dana Nuccitelli

  31-07-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  2017 is behind only El Niño-amplified 2016.
  With the first six months of 2017 in the books, average global surface temperatures so far this year are 0.94°C above the 1950–1980 average, according to NASA. That makes 2017 the second-hottest first six calendar months on record, behind only 2016. That’s remarkable because 2017 hasn’t had the warming influence of an El Niño event. El Niños bring warm ocean water to the surface, temporarily causing average gl
  
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• Culling of Scotland's mountain hares should be banned, says charity

  31-07-2017 11:47 via theguardian.com
  Death rates of hares native to Highlands are not monitored and animals are widely persecuted for sport, OneKind saysUnregulated culling of Scotland’s mountain hares should be banned and the species protected, according to a new report which claims shooting them for sport is inhumane and uncontrolled.
  Landowners can shoot the hares without a licence from August and claim culls are necessary to protect game, especially red grouse, from disease.Continue reading...
  
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• Saving the world's wildlife is not just 'a white person thing'

  31-07-2017 11:01 via theguardian.com
  The conservation sector is dominated by white faces, and for many people it looks a bit like colonialism. It’s time for new voices to take up the fightIn a few days it will be the 18th anniversary of the death of Michael Werikhe, the enigmatic African conservationist. You don’t hear or read much of him these days.Nicknamed “the Rhino Man” because his work and campaigns focused on the critically endangered black rhino, Werikhe’s main campaign tactic of choice was wal
  
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• Swapping cars for bikes, not diesel for electric, is the best route to clean air

  31-07-2017 08:30 via theguardian.com
  Cycling can be a huge part of the fight to tackle city air pollution. Tim Burns of Sustrans explains how their Active Travel Toolbox can help us get thereThe government’s air quality plan may make our air more breathable in the long run but it fails to tackle some of the biggest issues facing cities and towns in the UK, and more people on bikes are a huge part of the answer.At the heart of the plan is a move to ban all new diesel and petrol vans and cars from 2040, alongside a range of mea
  
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• 'The worst it's been': children continue to swim as raw sewage floods Gaza beach

  31-07-2017 08:15 via theguardian.com
  For most of the 2 million people in this overcrowded strip of land – largely cut off from the outside world – the beach and sea are the only affordable form of recreation. The only option now is to swim and even fish in filthy waterIt is high summer on Gaza City’s beach. A horse and cart patrols the shore selling brightly coloured swimming rings. A small boat is giving joy rides out to sea. Families sit on chairs while a few children play in the water.
  Normally, in the midst of
  
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• Seals going swimmingly in the greater Thames estuary

  31-07-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The river was once biologically dead but seals are back and a population survey will help guard against threats from disease and dredging“It’s a good news story,” says zoologist Anna-Christina Cucknell, as she watches seals glide smoothly through the water, their dark eyes watchful as their heads swivel like periscopes. “In the 1950s, the Thames was declared biologically dead. But the seals are coming back.”Cucknell will lead a land, air and sea survey of the seals
  
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• Heading to Venice? Don’t forget your pollution mask | Axel Friedrich

  31-07-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  Venetians regularly protest against the huge cruise ships docking in the city, but mass tourism is not the only problem they bring – the toxic air they pump out is harmful to locals and visitors alikeIf you’re heading to Venice on holiday this summer, don’t forget to pack your pollution mask. Worrying about toxic air might seem strange in a city with few roads and cars, but Venice’s air carries hidden risks.Every day five or six of the world’s largest cruise ships c
  
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• This tranquil bogland is not without its perils

  31-07-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Epping Forest, Essex The deep carpet of moss hides a watery void, and the sparkling sundews are busy trapping insectsThe Lodge Road bog is a pool of tranquillity at the centre of the commuter-traffic hum. Both my mobile phone and walkie-talkie radio signals have died, and only a few darting dragonflies break the stillness. Sponging up the sunlight, the bog glistens, a curve of brilliant green amid the deep summer gloom cast by surrounding beeches. On the outer orbit of London, the survival of th
  
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• Energy price rises due to policy uncertainty hurt poor most – report

  31-07-2017 04:59 via theguardian.com
  Australian Council of Social Service and Brotherhood of St Laurence warn of two-tiered energy system that favours the richLow-income and disadvantaged Australians are bearing the brunt of energy price rises caused by policy uncertainty, a new report has found. The Australian Council of Social Service and the Brotherhood of St Laurence have warned they are receiving harrowing reports since steep rises in wholesale energy prices began in mid-2016. Continue reading...
  
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• The Murray-Darling basin: a brief history – video

  31-07-2017 03:29 via theguardian.com
  The Murray-Darling basin covers more than 1 million sq km in south-eastern Australia. In response to the severe droughts of the early 2000s, the Murray-Darling basin plan was signed to secure its long-term ecological health. So far, it has not been successful and serious allegations surrounding compliance have further put the basin at riskContinue reading...
  
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• Elephants in Malawi relocated as part of conservation project

  31-07-2017 01:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Rangers in Malawi take on the mammoth task of moving hundreds of elephants into safer national parks.
  
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