Environment news

• Under threat: the three national monuments in Trump's sights

  24-08-2017 23:59 via theguardian.com
  As interior secretary recommends boundary changes to Donald Trump, three national monuments are reportedly at risk of being reduced in sizeIn April, Donald Trump ordered a sweeping review of 27 national monuments, from Maine to Oregon. The monuments were set aside over the last three decades by Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama. Trump’s review sought to explore whether the protected land should be opened up to create economic opportunities for industries such as oil, gas, minin
  
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• Study: Methane from tundra, ocean floor didn't spike during previous natural warming period

  24-08-2017 23:48 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists concerned that global warming may release huge stores of methane from reservoirs beneath Arctic tundra and deposits of marine hydrates – a theory known as the “clathrate gun” hypothesis – have turned to geologic history to search for evidence of significant methane release during past warming events.A new study published this week in the journal Nature suggests, however, that the last ice age transition to a warmer climate some 11,500 years ago did not include
  
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• Potential Impacts of Planned Andean Dams Outweigh Benefits, Scientists Say

  24-08-2017 21:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists used historical data and models to predict the impacts of six planned or potential Andean dams on the Amazon river system.
  
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• For the love of ice: Journeys to the remote and inhospitable

  24-08-2017 21:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  Ice has always been fascinating to Alison Criscitiello.“I had a science teacher who did a short unit on glaciers … I couldn’t believe they were real,” she says. That classroom encounter when she was in eight grade in Winchester, Massachusetts, had a lasting impact.
  
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• Coal in decline: Adani in question and Australia out of step

  24-08-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Special report: India and China are shifting away from coal imports and coal-fired power while a mega-mine is planned for Queensland. Where does this leave coal in Australia?Coal in decline: an industry on life support Support our independent journalism and critical reporting on energy and the environment by giving a one-off or monthly contributionThe Paris-based International Energy Agency was born in a crisis. In the wake of the 1973 oil shock, as Arab petroleum producers withheld supply from
  
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• Do you work tackling air pollution for a council? Share your experience with us

  24-08-2017 19:25 via theguardian.com
  We want to hear from people who monitor air quality data and inspect other forms of pollution locally. Get in touch with us hereThe issue of air pollution has recently been thrust into the news after the UK government lost court cases over illegally dirty air. It has been estimated that poor air quality contributes to the shortening of the lives of around 40,000 people a year. Councils are required to monitor the air quality in their district under the Environment Act 1995. Local authorities mus
  
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• Brazil abolishes huge Amazon reserve in 'biggest attack' in 50 years

  24-08-2017 19:07 via theguardian.com
  Brazilian president has dissolved Renca to attract investment in region thought to contain gold, with critics warning of irreversible damageThe Brazilian president Michel Temer has abolished an Amazonian reserve the size of Denmark, prompting concerns of an influx of mineral companies, road-builders and workers into the species-rich forest.The dissolution of the Renca reserve – which spans 46,000 sq km on the border of the Amapa and Para states – was described by one opposition senat
  
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• US public lands: Trump official recommends shrinking national monuments

  24-08-2017 18:10 via theguardian.com
  Interior secretary Ryan Zinke says his recommendations include boundary adjustments for some locations among 27 national monumentsConservation safeguards on a “handful” of national monuments across the US could be rolled back following the delivery on Thursday of the White House’s long-awaited review of such public lands, interior secretary Ryan Zinke said.Related: Trump's day of doom for national monuments approachesContinue reading...
  
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• Secret life of the dodo revealed

  24-08-2017 17:53 via bbc.co.uk
  Hundreds of years after the dodo died out, new facts are emerging about the life history of the bird.
  
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• Russian tanker sails through Arctic without icebreaker for first time

  24-08-2017 17:51 via theguardian.com
  Climate change has thawed Arctic enough for $300m gas tanker to travel at record speed through northern sea routeA Russian tanker has travelled through the northern sea route in record speed and without an icebreaker escort for the first time, highlighting how climate change is opening up the high Arctic.The $300m Christophe de Margerie carried a cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Hammerfest in Norway to Boryeong in South Korea in 22 days, about 30% quicker than the conventional southern
  
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• New green solvent could help clean our air

  24-08-2017 17:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  French researchers have patented an eco-friendly liquid mixture that could help trap harmful pollutants from the air. The non-flammable solvent contains urea and choline salt, a common ingredient in chicken feed, says Leila Moura of the Unité de Chimie Environnementale et Interactions sur le Vivant in France. She is the lead author of a study in Springer’s journal Environmental Chemistry Letters. 
  
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• Researchers Report Breakthrough in Magnesium Batteries

  24-08-2017 17:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  Magnesium batteries offer promise for safely powering modern life – unlike traditional lithium ion batteries, they are not flammable or subject to exploding – but their ability to store energy has been limited.Researchers reported Aug. 24 in the journal Nature Communications the discovery of a new design for the battery cathode, drastically increasing the storage capacity and upending conventional wisdom that the magnesium-chloride bond must be broken before inserting magne
  
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• New drug targets for a rare kidney and liver disease

  24-08-2017 17:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  In a joint international study, researchers from Osaka University have partnered with research groups from the United States and Spain to uncover how mutations in a single gene called PKHD1 lead to symptoms associated with a rare kidney and liver disease, ARPKD (autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease). The findings are expected to lead to novel treatment strategies against the disease.
  
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• UCLA research reveals how new behaviors appear and spread among capuchin monkeys

  24-08-2017 16:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  One white-faced capuchin monkey sticks its fingers deep into the eye sockets of another capuchin it’s friends with. A capuchin uses her ally’s body parts to whack their common enemy. These behaviors become entrenched in the repertoires of the inventors. But in the first case, the behavior spreads to other group members, and in the second case it does not.
  
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• Brain recovery longer than clinical recovery among athletes following concussion, new research suggests

  24-08-2017 16:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  University athletes with a recent concussion had changes in their brain structure and function even after they received medical clearance to return to play, a new study has found.
  
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• Exploring the Ground Truth: NASA's Twin Study Investigates Metabolites

  24-08-2017 16:09 via feedproxy.google.com
  You may think you’re just an average Joe, but according to your metabolomics data your body is percolating some expressive information about your daily life.
  
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• Life cycle of the mysterious and long-dead dodo revealed by bone study

  24-08-2017 15:11 via theguardian.com
  From egg-laying to moulting, a new bone analysis has unpicked the biology of the long-extinct bird Bulbous-beaked, plump and puny-winged, the dodo has been immortalised by humans in art, literature and song. But while the peculiar animals have inspired a panoply of research, not least as to whether they were really bird-brained or as corpulent as portraits implied, much about the dodo’s life has remained a mystery until now. Continue reading...
  
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• First tanker crosses northern sea route without ice breaker

  24-08-2017 15:04 via bbc.co.uk
  A commercial LNG tanker sails across the colder, northern route to Asia without an ice breaking ship.
  
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• Sugar mountains and living dolls: today's unmissable photos

  24-08-2017 14:18 via theguardian.com
  A selection of the day’s best images including purple weed gardens in Turkey, cricket on the Solent river in England and fireworks at a festival in Spain Continue reading...
  
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• Satellite eye on Earth: July 2017 – in pictures

  24-08-2017 12:28 via theguardian.com
  Wildfires in the US and Africa, tropical storms, and Bolivian salt flats are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last monthPakistan’s Makran coast meets the Arabian Sea where the dry terrain contrasts sharply with the water. Sometimes coast and water overlap and sediment pours into the sea. Once river water and sediment reach the ocean they are swept along by currents. Inland, the landscape is rugged. Narrow valleys provide pastures for sheep amid the desert. Continue reading...
  
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• New study finds that climate change costs will hit Trump country hardest | John Abraham

  24-08-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  In the USA, the southeastern states are most vulnerable to the costly impacts from human-caused climate change
  Humans are causing Earth’s climate to change. We know that. We’ve known it for decades. Okay so what? The follow-up questions should be directed to what the effects of warming will be. What will the costs be to society, to the natural biosystem, and to human lives? Let’s be honest, if the consequences of warming are not large, then who cares? But, if the consequences a
  
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• Scientists split over snow leopard status

  24-08-2017 11:26 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists are divided on whether snow leopards are still endangered species, a BBC investigation finds.
  
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• Adani to fight $12,900 fine for releasing coal-laden stormwater into sea

  24-08-2017 08:47 via theguardian.com
  Environmental groups have lambasted penalty issued by Queensland government as a slap on the wrist Adani has chosen to fight a $12,900 fine by the Queensland government for the unauthorised release of coal-laden stormwater into the sea at its Abbot Point port during a cyclone in March.The Indian energy giant has given notice to the state environment department that it intends to contest the modest penalty infringement notice in court, the Guardian can reveal. Continue reading...
  
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• Nickel mining: the hidden environmental cost of electric cars

  24-08-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The extraction of nickel, mainly mined in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Russia and the Philippines, comes with environmental and health costsAs countries the world over legislate to phase out petrol and diesel cars, attention is turning to the environmental impact of mining the materials needed for electric vehicle batteries.
  This additional scrutiny has largely focused on ethical concerns with cobalt and lithium supply chains, despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s observation last year that the l
  
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• We pick our steps along an Oxford Street of insects

  24-08-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Sandy, Bedfordshire Nectar shoppers flutter out of nowhere, a mass of moths, midges and mosquitoes chopping across the torchlit pathUnder a moonless, starless, benighted sky, head torches were switched on and we struck out across the riverside meadow. We had walked for several sure-footed minutes along a closely grazed towpath where white yarrow rosettes glowed like solar garden lights. The only hazards on that firm ground had been the nearly invisible giant plates that I stepped on and found to
  
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• Brazil opens vast Amazon reserve to mining

  24-08-2017 06:07 via bbc.co.uk
  The previously-protected area is bigger than Denmark and is thought to be rich in gold.
  
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• Dogger, Fisher, German Bight: shipping forecast celebrates 150 years

  24-08-2017 06:01 via theguardian.com
  The maritime service launched in 1867 and is still ‘vital’ to seafarers, says the RNLI, despite new sources of weather dataConsternation, mourning and national soul-searching greeted the temporary silencing of Big Ben last week, but at least another favourite fixture of the nightly and early morning radio is to continue. The hymnal cadences of Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, through Shannon, Rockall, Malin all the way to south-east Iceland, will be heard as usual on Thursday, as
  
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• Typhoon Hato kills 12 in Macau and southern China

  24-08-2017 05:01 via theguardian.com
  Thousands evacuated, flights cancelled and schools closed after the storm triggers Hong Kong’s most severe warningTyphoon Hato has killed at least 12 people after it tipped across southern China on Wednesday, battering Hong Kong skyscrapers, flooding streets and forcing thousands to flee to shelters.Hato triggered Hong Kong’s most severe typhoon 10 warning, only the third time a storm of such power has hit the financial hub in the past 20 years. Continue reading...
  
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• Thousands of Atlantic salmon escape from fish farm into Pacific

  24-08-2017 04:58 via theguardian.com
  Company admits it doesn’t know how many of its 305,000 fish are left after a net ‘failure’ amid concern about the impact on native speciesThousands of Atlantic salmon may have escaped into Pacific waters after a net pen holding 305,000 of the fish was damaged at a farm in Washington state, leading wildlife officials to call for anglers to catch as many of the fish as possible. The fish farm’s owner, Cooke Aquaculture, said on Wednesday that several thousand Atlantic salmo
  
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• Exxon deliberately misled public on climate science, say researchers

  24-08-2017 04:04 via theguardian.com
  Study of company documents, peer-reviewed papers and newspaper ads claims to show how the oil giant tried to cast doubt on climate scienceExxonMobil has knowingly misled the public for decades about the danger climate change poses to a warming world and the oil giant’s long-term viability, according to a peer-reviewed study.An analysis of nearly 200 documents spanning decades found that four-fifths of scientific studies and internal memos acknowledged global warming was real and caused by
  
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• Will fairy tale Białowieża forest survive Poland’s fight with the EU?

  24-08-2017 02:31 via bbc.co.uk
  Campaigners in Poland are worried about the future of one of Europe's last primeval forests, as the Polish government defies an EU order to stop logging there.
  
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• Typhoon Hato kills 10 in Macau, Hong Kong and southern China

  24-08-2017 00:47 via theguardian.com
  Thousands evacuated, flights cancelled and schools closed after the storm triggers Hong Kong’s most severe warningTyphoon Hato has killed at least 10 people after it tipped across southern China on Wednesday, battering Hong Kong skyscrapers, flooding streets and forcing thousands to flee to shelters.Hato triggered Hong Kong’s most severe typhoon 10 warning, only the third time a storm of such power has hit the financial hub in the past 20 years. Continue reading...
  
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• Science envoy resigns over Trump – with a letter spelling out 'impeach'

  24-08-2017 00:39 via theguardian.com
  State department’s Daniel Kammen quits with note calling out Charlottesville and Paris accord – and a hidden message in the first letters of each paragraph One of the US state department’s three science envoys publicly resigned on Wednesday, the latest in a wave of defections over Donald Trump’s response to a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.Daniel Kammen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a letter posted on his Twitter acc
  
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• Custom robots in a matter of minutes

  24-08-2017 00:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  Even as robots become increasingly common, they remain incredibly difficult to make. From designing and modeling to fabricating and testing, the process is slow and costly: Even one small change can mean days or weeks of rethinking and revising important hardware.But what if there were a way to let non-experts craft different robotic designs — in one sitting?Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are getting closer to doing ex
  
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