Environment news

• Another US agency deletes references to climate change on government website

  23-08-2017 22:23 via theguardian.com
  The term ‘climate change’ was changed to simply ‘climate’ on website of the National Institutes of Health, the world’s leading public health research bodyThe National Institutes of Health deleted multiple references to climate change on its website over the summer, continuing a trend that began when the Trump administration took charge of the dot.gov domain.Related: Trump is deleting climate change, one site at a timeContinue reading...
  
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• Amid environmental change, lakes surprisingly static

  23-08-2017 20:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  In recent decades, change has defined our environment in the United States. Agriculture intensified. Urban areas sprawled. The climate warmed. Intense rainstorms became more common. But, says a new University of Wisconsin–Madison study, while those kinds of changes usually result in poor water quality, lakes have surprisingly stayed the same.
  
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• Data mining finds more than expected beneath Andean Plateau

  23-08-2017 20:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  Seismologists investigating how Earth forms new continental crust have compiled more than 20 years of seismic data from a wide swath of South America’s Andean Plateau and determined that processes there have produced far more continental rock than previously believed.
  
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• Coal in decline: an energy industry on life support

  23-08-2017 20:18 via theguardian.com
  Special report: The pace of coal plants shutting down in Australia could mean the country’s fleet could be gone before 2040. The transformation is enormous – and seems inevitable• Support our independent journalism and critical reporting on energy and the environment by giving a one-off or monthly contributionFor a glimpse into the future of coal power in Australia, go west. The country’s last major investment in coal-fired electricity was in Western Australia in 2009, whe
  
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• Peas that like it hot

  23-08-2017 20:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  Farmers across the world produce between 10 and 13 million tons of field pea every year. That makes it a top legume crop, just behind dry beans and chickpeas.
  
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• NASA's Aqua Satellite spots Typhoon Hato's Landfall in China

  23-08-2017 20:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Typhoon Hato just hours after it made landfall in southeastern China. 
  
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• Sub-tropical corals vulnerable, new study shows

  23-08-2017 20:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  The vulnerability and conservation value of sub-tropical reefs south of the Great Barrier Reef - regarded as climate change refuges – has been highlighted in a new study.
  
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• On the other hand, the immune system can also CAUSE cancer

  23-08-2017 20:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  Infection with human papilloma virus (HPV) is the primary cause of cervical cancer and a subset of head and neck cancers worldwide. A University of Colorado Cancer Center paper describes a fascinating mechanism that links these two conditions – viral infection and cancer. The link, basically, is a family of enzymes called APOBEC3. These APOBEC3 enzymes are an essential piece of the immune system’s response to viral infection, attacking viral DNA to cause disabling mutations. Unfortun
  
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• 'Alarmingly high' levels of arsenic in Pakistan's ground water

  23-08-2017 20:02 via bbc.co.uk
  Up to 60 million Pakistanis are at risk from the deadly chemical, according to a new water analysis.
  
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• Climate change is luring Kodiak bears away from their iconic salmon streams

  23-08-2017 19:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  Kodiak brown bears are abandoning salmon–their iconic prey–due to climate change, according to a new study.  
  
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• Have you modified your bicycle? Share your photos with us

  23-08-2017 19:04 via theguardian.com
  Bicycles offer endless opportunities for modification, both practical and decorative. We’d like you to share your bicycle projects with usFrom converting a multi-speed hub into a fixed gear, adding downtube shift levers or simply a comfy seat, a bicycle offers endless opportunities for the DIY enthusiast. We’d like you to share your bicycle modifications with us.Whether it’s to help those with mobility problems, to transport your children or just to look like the coolest rider
  
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• Tributes paid to 'silent hero' wildlife conservationist killed in Tanzania

  23-08-2017 18:25 via theguardian.com
  Government officials and fellow conservationists paid tribute to Wayne Lotter at a special memorial yesterdayHundreds of people gathered at Baobab Village in Dar es Salaam to pay tribute to Wayne Lotter on Tuesday evening, as tributes continued to come in from around the world. Lotter, 51, was shot and killed last week while travelling in a taxi from the airport to his hotel on Dar es Salaam’s Msasani Peninsula. Lotter, who co-founded PAMS Foundation, a conservation nonprofit, was responsi
  
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• Invasive rhododendrons damage woodland environment

  23-08-2017 18:08 via bbc.co.uk
  New study shows invasive rhododendrons damage woodland environment but are not poisoning the soil
  
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• Motorist would not have landed cyclist's 'wanton and furious driving' charge

  23-08-2017 18:02 via theguardian.com
  Charlie Alliston should have had a front brake but 18mph is a cautious speed and double standards are at work hereA heavy-handed prosecution against a cyclist for manslaughter has failed but a charge of “wanton and furious driving” has succeeded.In 2016 more than 400 pedestrians were killed on UK roads. Each a terrible tragedy to those involved and almost all avoidable. One of these casualties, Kim Briggs, died after a collision between herself and a teenage cyclist, Charlie Alliston
  
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• Arctic radar to probe 'space weather'

  23-08-2017 17:24 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK contributes to a sophisticated new radar to map the Sun's impacts on Earth's high atmosphere.
  
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• Conservationists slam 'hateful' survey promoting wasp killing

  23-08-2017 16:39 via theguardian.com
  Big Wasp Survey encourages volunteers to build homemade traps then send dead wasps to entomologists to monitor populationsDrowning wasps in beer in the name of science may seem a socially acceptable way to exterminate a seasonal pest. But a citizen science survey “harnessing the public’s dislike of wasps” has been criticised for its “hateful language” and for unnecessarily killing rare insects.The Big Wasp Survey is encouraging 2,000 volunteers to build homemade bot
  
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• Three more rangers killed in a deadly month around the world for wildlife defenders

  23-08-2017 16:22 via theguardian.com
  Wildlife protection has become an increasingly dangerous business as rangers face armed gunmen and poachersThree rangers have been killed in separate countries in a deadly month for wildlife defenders.A ranger at Serra da Capivara national park, in Brazil’s north-eastern Piaui region, was killed by hunters on 18 August. Edilson Aparecido da Costa Silva and two other colleagues were patrolling the park when they were ambushed by a group of four armed men who are believed to have been huntin
  
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• Mermaid classes and lightning bolts: today's unmissable photos

  23-08-2017 14:12 via theguardian.com
  A selection of the day’s best images including a light festival in Poland, tree protesters in Sheffield and thousands of cat statues in Tokyo Continue reading...
  
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• The job no one wants: why won't young people work in logging?

  23-08-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Construction is booming – and yet loggers are facing a labor shortage. Can new technology attract young people to a life in the forest?On a steep slope just inland from Waldport, Oregon, a young forestry worker named Jared Foster is at the controls of a large machine called a forwarder. The machine, made by Finnish company Ponnse, looks like it was designed by Michael Bay. The front section contains a climate-controlled cabin, in which Foster sits, listening to a country music station as h
  
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• The billionaire behind the world’s first genetically modified salmon

  23-08-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Intrexon, a $2.2bn company headed by Randal Kirk, quietly began selling transgenic salmon, after making apples that don’t brown and cloning petsIf you want to sample the world’s first animal to be genetically engineered in the name of dinner, good luck finding it. If, on the other hand, you would never eat such a thing – good luck avoiding it.Tons of lab-developed salmon was sold in Canada last year without any packaging labeling it as a product of science, and the company that
  
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• Into the woods: how the logging industry is courting millennials

  23-08-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Construction is booming – and yet loggers are facing a labor shortage. Can new technology attract young people to a life in the forest?On a steep slope just inland from Waldport, Oregon, a young forestry worker named Jared Foster is at the controls of a large machine called a forwarder. The machine, made by Finnish company Ponnse, looks like it was designed by Michael Bay. The front section contains a climate-controlled cabin, in which Foster sits, listening to a country music station as h
  
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• GM salmon: want to try it or avoid it? Either way, good luck

  23-08-2017 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Labeling for GM foods is not required by law in the US or Canada, but surveys show consumers want their food – particularly transgenic animals – to be labeled If you want to sample the world’s first animal to be genetically engineered in the name of dinner, good luck finding it. If, on the other hand, you would never eat such a thing – good luck avoiding it.Tons of lab-developed salmon was sold in Canada last year without any packaging labeling it as a product of science,
  
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• Firefighters eat sausages made of piglets they saved from blaze

  23-08-2017 12:45 via theguardian.com
  Farmer sends gift of sausages to thank Wiltshire firefighters who rescued piglets and two sows from fire in barnA farmer whose piglets were saved from a barn fire has served the animals up as sausages to thank the firefighters who rescued them.The baby pigs and two sows were freed by firefighters from Pewsey in Wiltshire when a barn went up in flames in February. Continue reading...
  
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• Harvard scientists took Exxon’s challenge; found it using the tobacco playbook | Dana Nuccitelli

  23-08-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  A new study finds a stark contrast between Exxon’s research and what the company told the publicRead all of these documents and make up your own mind.That was the challenge ExxonMobil issued when investigative journalism by Inside Climate News revealed that while it was at the forefront of climate science research in the 1970s and 1980s, Exxon engaged in a campaign to misinform the public. Continue reading...
  
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• Typhoon Hato kills three in Macau and batters Hong Kong

  23-08-2017 11:43 via theguardian.com
  Two other people missing in Chinese gambling enclave, and flights cancelled and schools closed in Hong Kong A powerful typhoon has killed at least three people in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau and forced offices and schools to close in Hong Kong, where hundreds of flights have been cancelled.Related: Asian typhoons becoming more intense, study findsContinue reading...
  
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• Sheffield tree protesters blockade council depot as injunction begins

  23-08-2017 11:39 via theguardian.com
  Demonstration comes hours after court order preventing campaigners from taking ‘unlawful direct action’ came into forceCampaigners have demonstrated against a “politically controversial” tree-felling programme in Sheffield, hours after the start of a high court injunction against protesters.About 50 campaigners, some wearing wigs and dressing gowns and one in a Michael Gove mask, blockaded a Sheffield city council depot to try to prevent tree-felling contractors from leav
  
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• Borough Market to phase out plastic bottle sales with free fountains

  23-08-2017 08:01 via theguardian.com
  London’s historic food market also aims to achieve zero landfill with biodegradable packaging and compostable leftoversLondon’s Borough Market is to introduce free drinking water fountains as part of a new pledge to phase out sales of all single-use plastic bottles over the next six months. The renowned foodie haven – the only fully independent market in the capital – is aiming to become the UK’s biggest food shopping destination that is entirely plastic-free. Conti
  
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• Victoria moves to become first state to enshrine renewable energy targets in law

  23-08-2017 07:46 via theguardian.com
  Government says law, which will include 40% renewables by 2025 and commitment to invest in new projects, will send a strong signal to investorsThe Victorian government has introduced legislation to enshrine its renewable energy targets in law and establish a reverse auction mechanism to build 650 megawatts worth of new projects.The premier, Daniel Andrews, announced the Victorian renewable energy targets (VRET) of 25% renewable energy by 2020 and 40% by 2025 in June 2016.Continue reading...
  
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• Tony de Brum, champion of Paris climate agreement, dies aged 72

  23-08-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  De Brum saw the effects of rising seas from his home in the Marshall Islands and became a leading advocate for the fight against climate changeTony de Brum, the former Marshall Islands foreign minister who became a leading advocate for the landmark Paris Agreement and an internationally recognised voice in the fight against climate change, has died aged 72.De Brum, who was also the Pacific nation’s climate ambassador, died on Tuesday in the capital Majuro surrounded by his family, accordi
  
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• As faith leaders, we asked Frydenberg to cancel the Adani mine. It’s a simple moral choice

  23-08-2017 07:10 via theguardian.com
  A Buddhist leader has told Josh Frydenberg he would stand in front of machinery if digging at the Adani coal mine starts. All people of faith should join him
  Earlier in August, six faith leaders meet with Australia’s environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg. Our group includes Bishop Philip Huggins, the president of the National Council of Churches, a Uniting Church reverend, a rabbi, a Catholic nun and an ordained Buddhist. This is not the start of a joke, but a polite and serious
  
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• Will of nature in the vast glittering salt marsh

  23-08-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Glastraeth, Gwynedd A vastness of light and water, the sea’s immensity and the intimacy of the creeks, overwhelms the selfAmong the glittering spillways, a vastness of light and water, the self is overwhelmed by the immensity of mountains and sea, and the intimacy of samphire lawns, sea aster flowers and creeks. We wander into the salt marsh with sheep, a drift of Canada geese, an egret sharpening its idea of the strike, a group of Romany foragers, a raven and a story.When the monastery at
  
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• Across the glittering sands of time

  23-08-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Glastraeth, Gwynedd A trek across the salt marsh in the footsteps of long-dead heretics questions the very nature of the individualAmong the glittering spillways, a vastness of light and water, the self is overwhelmed by the immensity of mountains and sea, and the intimacy of samphire lawns, sea aster flowers and creeks. We wander into the salt marsh with sheep, a drift of Canada geese, an egret sharpening its idea of the strike, a group of Romany foragers, a raven and a story.When the monastery
  
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