Environment news

• Cooking up new ways to clean up our planet

  08-08-2017 23:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  In a win-win for a cleaner planet, scientists have devised a way to use waste cooking oil and sulphur to extract the neurotoxin mercury from the environment.For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that the dynamic new canola oil polymer can trap the most dangerous and common types of mercury pollution – mercury metal, mercury vapour and highly toxic organo-mercury compounds which harm both aquatic and terrestrial systems.
  
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• Virginia Tech researchers discover potentially harmful airborne nanoparticles produced through burning of coal

  08-08-2017 22:51 via feedproxy.google.com
  Environmental scientists led by the Virginia Tech College of Science have discovered that the burning of coal produces incredibly small particles of a highly unusual form of titanium oxide.
  
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• Annual Wind Power Report Confirms Technology Advancements, Improved Project Performance, and Low Wind Energy Prices

  08-08-2017 22:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  Wind energy pricing for land-based, utility-scale projects remains attractive to utility and commercial purchasers, according to an annual report released by the U.S. Department of Energy and prepared by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Prices offered by newly built wind projects in the United States are averaging around 2¢/kWh, driven lower by technology advancements and cost reductions.
  
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• Distributed wind power keeps spinning, growing

  08-08-2017 22:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  Both businesses and homeowners are increasingly using distributed wind power thanks to innovative business models and other trends, according to a new report released today.
  
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• The Nitrogen Problem: Why Global Warming Is Making It Worse

  08-08-2017 22:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  It is a painful lesson of our time that the things we depend on to make our lives more comfortable can also kill us. Our addiction to fossils fuels is the obvious example, as we come to terms with the slow-motion catastrophe of climate change. But we are addicted to nitrogen, too, in the fertilizers that feed us, and it now appears that the combination of climate change and nitrogen pollution is multiplying the possibilities for wrecking the world around us.
  
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• Extreme melt season leads to decade-long ecosystem changes in Antarctica's Dry Valleys

  08-08-2017 22:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  An abnormal season of intense glacial melt in 2002 triggered multiple distinct changes in the physical and biological characteristics of Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys over the ensuing decade, new research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) shows.The findings suggest that abrupt, short-lived climate events can cause long-term alterations in polar regions that unfold over the span of several years and subsequently change the overall trajectory of an ecosystem.The new research appea
  
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• Paris climate deal: US tells diplomats to dodge foreign officials' questions

  08-08-2017 22:07 via theguardian.com
  Secretary of state Rex Tillerson directs staff to make clear US wants to help other countries use fossil fuels, diplomatic cable showsUS diplomats should sidestep questions from foreign governments on what it would take for the Trump administration to re-engage in the global Paris climate agreement, according to a diplomatic cable seen by Reuters.The cable, sent by the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, to embassies on Friday, also said diplomats should make clear the United States wants to h
  
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• Extreme heat linked to climate change may adversely affect pregnancy

  08-08-2017 21:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  Pregnant women are an important but thus far largely overlooked group vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat linked to climate change, according to new research by Sabrina McCormick, PhD, an Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University.  
  
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• Study finds that Choice of Cool Roofing Materials can Potentially Impact Region's Air Pollution

  08-08-2017 20:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  In a groundbreaking study released today, scientists at the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the University of Southern California have found that widespread installation of certain “cool roof” materials in the region could slightly increase ozone and fine particulate pollution levels.
  
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• Foxes spotted in a Foxes fan's garden

  08-08-2017 19:44 via bbc.co.uk
  The eight foxes have started "training" in the back garden of a family in Leicester.
  
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• Dam it! How beavers could save Britain from flooding

  08-08-2017 17:38 via theguardian.com
  Since their trial reintroduction in Devon, the animal’s engineering skills have reduced floodwater and created a paradise for local wildlife. Should we bring them back for good? At a secret location in the rolling pasture of west Devon lies a marshy patch of farmland protected by £35,000-worth of solar-powered electric fencing. This isn’t to keep people out but to restrain the tree-chomping, river-damming residents of these three hectares. Outside the fence is a typical small v
  
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• Should I sell or scrap my diesel car?

  08-08-2017 16:56 via theguardian.com
  I’d probably get £3,000 for my 12-year-old Mercedes E-class estate, but I could keep it going despite environmental fearsEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.This week’s question: Continue reading...
  
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• Climate change jaw dropper: Great white shark could one day prowl B.C. waters

  08-08-2017 15:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  If ocean temperatures continue to climb, you’re going to need a bigger boat.Great white sharks could one day be swimming in British Columbia waters, according to William Cheung, associate professor at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC who studies the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems.
  
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• The Trump administration's solution to climate change: ban the term | Bill McKibben

  08-08-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  The US Department of Agriculture has forbidden the use of the words ‘climate change’. This say-no-evil policy is doomed to failIn a bold new strategy unveiled on Monday in the Guardian, the US Department of Agriculture – guardians of the planet’s richest farmlands – has decided to combat the threat of global warming by forbidding the use of the words. Under guidance from the agency’s director of soil health, Bianca Moebius-Clune, a list of phrases to be avoide
  
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• Censoring climate change won't stop global warming | Bill McKibben

  08-08-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  The US Department of Agriculture has forbidden the use of the words ‘climate change’. This say-no-evil policy is doomed to failBill McKibben is the founder of the climate campaign 350.orgIn a bold new strategy unveiled on Monday in the Guardian, the United States Department of Agriculture – guardians of the planet’s richest farmlands – has decided to combat the threat of global warming by forbidding the use of the words. Under guidance from the agency’s direct
  
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• Sandpipers are already on their way south

  08-08-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Pulborough Brooks, West Sussex The sun is slowly dropping towards the horizon and the air is cooling. The sandpipers are still feeding, making the most of this important stopover site on their routeRipples flow across the golden grass as the stems bend back and forth in the breeze. A pair of common blue butterflies – the male sky blue, the female rusty brown – dance over the field. It’s quiet, apart from the tinkling of parties of goldfinches flying over, and the relentless buz
  
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• Chantek, the orangutan who used sign language, dies at 39

  08-08-2017 05:23 via bbc.co.uk
  Chantek could also clean his room, make and use tools and learn the route to a restaurant.
  
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• Australian teen just 'unfortunate' to be attacked by meat-loving sea fleas

  08-08-2017 04:15 via theguardian.com
  It’s safe to go back in the water, says marine biologist who identified the miniature attackers as lysianassid amphipodsThe “meat-loving” marine creature that ate at the legs of a Melbourne teenager has been identified as a flesh-eating sea flea, known as a lysianassid amphipod.Marine biologist Dr Genefor Walker-Smith said the creatures, which left 16-year-old Sam Kanizay with significant bleeding from his legs, were a small, scavenging crustacean that usually fed on dead fish
  
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• Commonwealth Bank shareholders sue over 'inadequate' disclosure of climate change risks

  08-08-2017 03:07 via theguardian.com
  In world-first case, shareholders’ move comes after the Australian financial regulator warned climate change poses material risk to entire financial systemThe embattled Commonwealth Bank is being sued by shareholders for what they say is a failure to properly disclose the risks to the business posed by climate change.
  The case will be the first anywhere in the world to test in court how companies are required to disclose climate change-related risks in their annual reports, and follows cal
  
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• Canary Island tourists warned to avoid toxic 'sea sawdust' algae

  08-08-2017 02:34 via theguardian.com
  Global warming helping spread of micro-algae, forcing the closure of several beaches including popular Teresitas at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.Tourists have been warned to avoid blooms of toxic micro-algae that have been proliferating in hot weather in the sea off Spain’s Canary Islands.
  Tenerife in particular is awash with visitors at this time of year but some of those having a dip in the Atlantic ocean have come out scratching themselves after brushing up against the tiny algae. Continue re
  
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• 'Dodgy' greenhouse gas data threatens Paris accord

  08-08-2017 01:22 via bbc.co.uk
  There are huge uncertainties in greenhouse gas totals due to inaccurate data, the BBC finds.
  
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