Environment news

• Fish sauced? Goldfish turn to alcohol to survive icy winters

  11-08-2017 18:19 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers uncover the evolved ability of goldfish to generate alcohol when deprived of oxygen.
  
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• Canary in a coal mine: Survey captures global picture of air pollution's effects on birds

  11-08-2017 18:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  Famously, the use of caged birds to alert miners to the invisible dangers of gases such as carbon monoxide gave rise to the cautionary metaphor “canary in a coal mine.”But other than the fact that exposure to toxic gases in a confined space kills caged birds before affecting humans — providing a timely warning to miners — what do we know about the effects of air pollution on birds?Not as much as you’d think, according to researchers from the University of Wisconsin&
  
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• Sadiq Khan criticised for backtracking on pledge for London public energy company

  11-08-2017 17:54 via theguardian.com
  Mayor is letting down Londoners by leaving out a manifesto pledge to create a not-for-profit energy company from his new environment strategy, say green groupsCampaigners have condemned the mayor of London’s new environment strategy for falling short by failing to announce the establishment of a publicly owned energy company for Londoners, one of his manifesto promises.Sadiq Khan published his environment policy on Friday, which aims to turn the capital into a zero waste and zero emissions
  
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• How goldfish make alcohol to survive without oxygen

  11-08-2017 17:48 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Oslo have uncovered the secret behind a goldfish’s remarkable ability to produce alcohol as a way of surviving harsh winters beneath frozen lakes.Humans and most other vertebrate animals die within a few minutes without oxygen. Yet goldfish and their wild relatives, crucian carp, can survive for days, even months, in oxygen-free water at the bottom of ice-covered ponds.During this time, the fish are able to convert anaerobically produced lact
  
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• Not all villains wear Lycra – cars are literally killing us | Arwa Mahdawi

  11-08-2017 17:11 via theguardian.com
  ‘Hogger joggers’ and Mamils aren’t the only ones hurling us into the path of danger. There’s a bigger and more normalised culprit on our streetsThere is – you may have noticed – a certain sort of middle-class, middle-aged man who decides he’s going to burn off the angst of advancing age through aggressive exercise. He’s going to do marathons and triathlons and so on; he’s going to muscle his way out of mortality.Now, exercise is normally cons
  
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• Jackdaws flap their wings to save energy

  11-08-2017 17:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  For the first time, researchers have observed that birds that fly actively and flap their wings save energy. Biologists at Lund University in Sweden have now shown that jackdaws minimise their energy consumption when they lift off and fly, because the feathers on their wing tips create several small vortices instead of a single large one. The discovery could potentially be applied within the aeronautical industry.
  
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• Night vision for bird- & bat-friendly offshore wind power

  11-08-2017 16:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  The same technology that enables soldiers to see in the dark can also help protect birds and bats near offshore wind turbines.Night vision goggles use thermal imaging, which captures infrared light that's invisible to the human eye. Now, researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are using thermal imaging to help birds and bats near offshore wind farms. PNNL is developing software called ThermalTracker to automatically categorize birds and
  
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• Global Warming Will Leave Different Fingerprints on Global Subtropical Anticyclones

  11-08-2017 16:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  Subtropical anticyclone is an essential component of the atmospheric circulation in the subtropics, and it is responsible for the formation of subtropical monsoons and deserts. There are two subtropical anticyclones in the subtropical northern hemisphere in boreal summer, and three subtropical anticyclones in the subtropical southern hemisphere in austral summer. These five summertime subtropical anticyclones are all located at the lower troposphere over the subtropical oceans.
  
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• Grouse moors 'to blame for Scotland's disappearing raptors'

  11-08-2017 16:22 via theguardian.com
  As estates gear up for Glorious Twelfth, wildlife crime expert talks of direct link between grouse moors and persecution of birds of preyGrouse moors are to blame for persecuting endangered birds of prey in the Scottish Highlands and Uplands, according to a wildlife crime expert.Ian Thomson, the head of investigations at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland, said data from 77 birds of prey that had been satellite-tagged showed a direct correlation between dead and disappeared b
  
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• Climate change shifts timing of European floods

  11-08-2017 15:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  A study conducted by TU Wien and 30 European partners shows that the timing of the floods has shifted across much of Europe, dramatically in some areas. When a major flood event occurs it is often attributed to climate change. However, a single event is not proof, and so far it has been unclear whether climate change has a direct influence on river floods at large scales in Europe.
  
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• Rustler steals 40,000 bees in Britain's biggest hive heist in years

  11-08-2017 15:20 via theguardian.com
  Only an experienced beekeeper could have pulled off raid in Anglesey ‘without getting stung to smithereens’, police sayAn experienced beekeeper is suspected of stealing 40,000 bees from Anglesey in one of Britain’s biggest bee rustling cases in years.Only someone with a bee suit and veil could have pulled off the heist on Paul Williams’s hive in Rhydwyn “without getting stung to smithereens”, police said. Continue reading...
  
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• Al Gore: Trump has failed to knock Paris climate deal off course

  11-08-2017 14:51 via theguardian.com
  Former US vice president says the US will meet its climate commitments in spite of Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the global agreementDonald Trump has failed to knock the Paris climate agreement off course despite his efforts to derail it, according to the former US vice president Al Gore.“The US will meet its commitments [on emissions] in spite of Donald Trump,” he said in London, where his new film An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power was released on Friday. “Every ot
  
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• Giant pipe sections wash up on Norfolk coast – video

  11-08-2017 13:21 via theguardian.com
  A section of pipe almost half a kilometre long has washed up on the north Norfolk coast after breaking free from Norwegian tugs bound for Algeria. Another length of pipe beached earlier this week, and 10 more have been located and secured at seaPipe sections up to half a kilometre long wash up on Norfolk beach Continue reading...
  
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• Giant pipe sections wash up on Norfolk beach – video

  11-08-2017 13:21 via theguardian.com
  A section of pipe almost half a kilometre long has washed up on the north Norfolk coast after breaking free from Norwegian tugs bound for Algeria. Another length of pipe beached earlier this week, and 10 more have been located and secured at seaPipe sections up to half a kilometre long wash up on Norfolk beach Continue reading...
  
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• Climate crusader Gore takes up arms again

  11-08-2017 13:11 via bbc.co.uk
  BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin reviews Al Gore's climate movie sequel.
  
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• Where global warming gets real: inside Nasa’s mission to the north pole – podcast

  11-08-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  For 10 years, Nasa has been flying over the ice caps to chart their retreat. This data is an invaluable record of climate change. But does anyone care?• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, iTunes, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast & Sticher and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...
  
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• Anger over 'untrue' climate change claims

  11-08-2017 12:55 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists respond furiously to claims about climate change made in a BBC radio interview.
  
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• The year Trump was elected was so hot, it was 1-in-a-million | Dana Nuccitelli

  11-08-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  The odds of 2014, 2015, and 2016 naturally being as hot as they were are about the same as the odds you’ll be struck by lightning this year2014, 2015, and 2016 each broke the global temperature record. A new study led by climate scientist Michael Mann just published in Geophysical Research Letters used climate model simulations to examine the odds that these records would have been set in a world with and without human-caused global warming. In model simulations without a human climate inf
  
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• Linescapes by Hugh Warwick review – a manifesto for reuniting with nature

  11-08-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  A good-humoured, hedgehog’s-eye view of the country’s ditches, dykes and railwaysThere is a venerable tradition of literature about the lines humans have created in the British landscape. Alfred Watkins’s The Old Straight Track, Francis Hitching’s Earth Magic, Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways and a plethora of natural histories and hedgerow-seeking illuminations – recently John Wright’s The Natural History of the Hedgerow. All are fascinated with fr
  
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• The Transcontinental bike race: 2,400 gruelling miles across Europe – in pictures

  11-08-2017 08:30 via theguardian.com
  Hundreds of riders race from Belgium to Greece, with no set route, facing extreme heat and often on only a few hours sleep a night Continue reading...
  
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• All slaughterhouses in England to have compulsory CCTV

  11-08-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  Cameras are part of a series of measures to improve animal welfare and enforce laws against cruelty
  All slaughterhouses in England will be fitted with compulsory CCTV under plans to be unveiled on Friday by environment secretary Michael Gove, as part of a series of measures to bolster welfare standards and enforce laws against animal cruelty. Continue reading...
  
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• Britain spent 'twice as much on overseas fossil fuels as renewables'

  11-08-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Nearly half of £6.1bn energy spending in developing countries from 2010-14 went on oil, coal and gas-fired schemes, data showsThe UK has spent more than twice as much overseas support on fossil fuels projects as on renewable ones so far this decade, according to research commissioned by the Catholic aid agency Cafod.The Overseas Development Institute, which analysed the figures, found that 46% of Britain’s £6.1bn energy spending in developing countries between 2010 and 2014 wen
  
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• New CBA case a warning: Step up on climate change, or we’ll see you in court | John Hewson

  11-08-2017 06:31 via theguardian.com
  Despite the scale and urgency of the climate crisis and popular support for action, governments and financiers are failing to act. This will have to change John Hewson is a professor at ANU and a former Liberal leaderIn a global first, Australian mum-and-dad shareholders Guy and Kim Abrahams have launched a case against the Commonwealth Bank, arguing that the bank has breached the law by not disclosing the risks climate change poses to its business.Buying their shares over 20 years ago, Guy and
  
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• Who's the brightest spark out there? It has to be the glow-worm

  11-08-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Havant Thicket, Hampshire The beetle’s astonishingly efficient process means 98% of the energy linked to the chemical reaction is emitted as lightIt was just before 10pm when I spotted the first vivid green spark in the understorey – a female common glow-worm. She had climbed a tall blade of grass and was advertising her availability to males on the wing, curling her abdomen to show off the bioluminescent rear segments to their best effect. The ethereal illumination – which can
  
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• Government loan to Adani will create ‘billion-dollar ghost train’, Senate told

  11-08-2017 04:00 via theguardian.com
  Public governance specialist raises concerns over the way the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is conducting itselfIf the federal government funds a rail link to Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine, it will become known as the “government-funded billion-dollar ghost train”, an expert in public governance has told the Senate.Thomas Clark, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney, who has decades of experience in public and corporate governance, appeared before a
  
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• Queensland coalmines named and shamed for dust monitoring failures

  11-08-2017 03:50 via theguardian.com
  Four mines operated by Glencore and Anglo could be prosecuted or even shut down, minister tells state parliamentFour underground Queensland coalmines operated by Glencore and Anglo American could be prosecuted or even shut down for failing to properly monitor dust levels.Anthony Lynham, the state’s mines minister, has named and shamed the companies in parliament, warning that they risked severe penalties for failing to meet monitoring obligations designed to protect workers from dust-relat
  
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• GM pigs take step to being organ donors

  11-08-2017 03:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Pigs have been freed of viruses that stop them being viable organ donors.
  
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• Climate change has shifted the timing of European floods

  11-08-2017 00:58 via bbc.co.uk
  In different parts of Europe, rivers are flooding earlier or later because of rising temperatures, say scientists.
  
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• Adani fined for dumping coal-laden stormwater into sea at Abbot Point

  11-08-2017 00:36 via theguardian.com
  Dumped water containing over eight times the permitted amount of sediment was released by family-linked company during Cyclone Debbie in MarchAn Adani company has been fined by the Queensland government for its unauthorised release of coal-laden stormwater into the sea at its Abbot Point port during a cyclone in March.The coal port operator, which dumped water containing more than eight times the permitted amount of sediment during Cyclone Debbie on 27 March, was issued a $12,190 penalty for a t
  
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• Crank the AC, cut in-car pollution

  11-08-2017 00:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  For many, the commute to and from work is a lengthy, stressful process. According to the U.S.  Census Bureau, it takes the average American about 26½ minutes to get to work. That’s nearly an hour each day — to work and back — to face traffic snarls and congested highways. That commute can also be hazardous to your health, exposing drivers to an increased amount of air pollutants that have been linked to a whole host of medical maladies, including cardiovascular dise
  
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