Environment news

• Icy air reveals human-made methane levels higher than previously believed

  25-08-2017 20:18 via feedproxy.google.com
  In 2011 a team of researchers led by Vasilii Petrenko, an assistant professor of Earth and environmental sciences at the University of Rochester, spent seven weeks in Antarctica collecting and studying 2,000-pound samples of glacial ice cores that date back nearly 12,000 years. The ancient air trapped within the ice revealed surprising new data about methane that may help inform today’s policymakers as they consider ways to reduce global warming.
  
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• Recipe for Safer Batteries — Just Add Diamonds

  25-08-2017 20:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  While lithium-ion batteries, widely used in mobile devices from cell phones to laptops, have one of the longest lifespans of commercial batteries today, they also have been behind a number of recent meltdowns and fires due to short-circuiting in mobile devices. In hopes of preventing more of these hazardous malfunctions researchers at Drexel University have developed a recipe that can turn electrolyte solution — a key component of most batteries — into a safeguard against the chemica
  
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• London zoo weigh-in – in pictures

  25-08-2017 19:56 via theguardian.com
  Each year the keepers at the zoo record the animals’ vital statistics to monitor their health and general wellbeing Continue reading...
  
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• NASA Look at Tropical Storm Pakhar in Infrared Light

  25-08-2017 19:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Storm Pakhar and gathered temperature data to determine the location of the most powerful storms within. Pakhar has triggered a number of warnings throughout the Philippines as the storm moves closer.Philippines warnings include Public storm warning signal #1 for the Luzon provinces of Cagayan including Babuyan group of islands, Apayao, Ilocos Norte, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Northern Quezon including Polillo island, and Camarines Norte. Public sto
  
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• New wrapping material enables high quality bioimaging

  25-08-2017 19:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  A nanosheet made of organic polymers has been developed to prevent the drying and deforming of biological samples, thus enabling high-quality imaging under microscopes.Be it cosmology or biology, the advancement of science largely relies on the advancement of measuring instruments and methodology. In the past couple of decades, scientists’ passion to see the invisible has vastly improved microscopes and other equipment resulting in high-resolution images, three-dimensional images, and long
  
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• Arctic Ice Cores Document Climate Change in Past 300 Years

  25-08-2017 18:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  Ice cores from arctic mountain glaciers show a dramatic climate change that began nearly 300 years ago, documenting an unprecedented increase in the intensity and duration of winter storms. Drilled by a Dartmouth-led team, the cores show striking changes in weather patterns that may have reached as far as Florida.“We attribute these changes to a warming of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific,” says Erich Osterberg, an assistant professor in the Department of Ea
  
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• Drones relay RFID signals for inventory control

  25-08-2017 18:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  Radio frequency ID tags were supposed to revolutionize supply chain management. The dirt-cheap, battery-free tags, which receive power wirelessly from scanners and then broadcast identifying numbers, enable warehouse managers to log inventory much more efficiently than they could by reading box numbers and recording them manually.
  
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• Icebergs: Mathematical model calculates the collapse of shelf ice

  25-08-2017 18:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  Shelf ice, as found in Antarctica, refers to giant floating ice sheets that can span thousands of square kilometres. Pieces break off at their edges which form icebergs in the ocean. In order to more effectively predict these break-offs, in a process known as calving, Julia Christmann from the University of Kaiserslautern (TU) has developed mathematical models in cooperation with the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). On the basis of physical factors,
  
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• NASA Gets an In-Depth Look at Intensifying Hurricane Harvey

  25-08-2017 18:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  As Hurricane Harvey continued to strengthen, NASA analyzed the storm’s rainfall, cloud heights and cloud top temperatures. NASA’s GPM and Aqua satellite provided information while an animation of GOES-East satellite imagery showed Harvey’s progression toward the Texas coast. Harvey's intensification has been aided by movement through an environment that includes low vertical wind shear and the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
  
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• A Galápagos seabird's population expected to shrink with ocean warming

  25-08-2017 18:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  Within the next century, rising ocean temperatures around the Galápagos Islands are expected to make the water too warm for a key prey species, sardines, to tolerate. A new study by Wake Forest University biologists, published in PLOS One Aug. 23, uses decades of data on the diet and breeding of a tropical seabird, the Nazca booby, to understand how the future absence of sardines may affect the booby population.
  
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• Researchers identify cheaper, greener biofuels processing catalyst

  25-08-2017 18:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  Fuels that are produced from nonpetroleum-based biological sources may become greener and more affordable, thanks to research performed at the University of Illinois’ Prairie Research Institutethat examines the use of a processing catalyst made from palladium metal and bacteria.
  
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• Taxpayers spend £500,000 on radios for badger cull marksmen

  25-08-2017 16:56 via theguardian.com
  Police call for cull shooters to be given same hi-tech system they use – but activists buy counter-devices to disrupt shootingHundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ pounds have been spent on equipping badger cull marksmen with radios that link them directly to police, the Guardian has learned. Police have advised the government to invest in the same communications system they use to make it easier for officers to get to conflicts with cull saboteurs in remote areas where the mobile phon
  
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• NASA Satellite Reveals Formation of Philippine Sea Tropical Depression 16W

  25-08-2017 16:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  NASA’s Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at the newly formed Tropical Depression 16W in the Philippine Sea. 16W is known locally in the Philippines as "Jolina."  
  
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• Warmer waters from climate change will leave fish shrinking, gasping for air

  25-08-2017 15:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Fish are expected to shrink in size by 20 to 30 per cent if ocean temperatures continue to climb due to climate change.A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia provides a deeper explanation of why fish are expected to decline in size.
  
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• Rare double waterspout caught on camera

  25-08-2017 14:48 via bbc.co.uk
  The sight, off the coast of Florida's Anna Maria Island, was filmed on Thursday afternoon.
  
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• What's really the point of wasps?

  25-08-2017 14:18 via bbc.co.uk
  A new citizen science survey aims to shed light on that fixture of summertime in the outdoors: the wasp.
  
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• Residents torn over plan to raze homes on Wales's most polluted road

  25-08-2017 14:01 via theguardian.com
  Houses on Woodside Terrace, Crumlin, may face demolition after area named as having worst air quality in UK outside LondonA row of terraced houses in the south Wales valleys could be demolished after the stretch of road outside their front doors was identified as having the worst air pollution in the UK outside London.Some residents of Woodside Terrace in Crumlin who believe their health is suffering, or despair at the constant roar of traffic, have welcomed the idea of the houses being razed.Co
  
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• Alps melting?

  25-08-2017 13:53 via bbc.co.uk
  A huge rockfall in Val Bondasca raises questions about how climate change is affecting the Alps.
  
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• Peru tribal leaders vow to halt oil output unless indigenous rights respected

  25-08-2017 12:34 via theguardian.com
  Amazon leaders accuse government of blocking consultation on 30-year contract with Canadian oil firm and have given ministers 20 days to apply lawIndigenous leaders from the area around Peru’s largest oil field have threatened to block the government from accessing their territories and halt oil production unless an indigenous rights law is applied within 20 days.The tribal leaders, who hail from four Amazon river basins, accuse the government of refusing to carry out a consultation proces
  
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• Glencore document suggests mine site could revert to NT before rehabilitation complete

  25-08-2017 09:40 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Risk assessment table indicates Glencore may have little or no involvement after McArthur River Mine’s life ends
  A mine expansion proposal by Glencore appears to include handing responsibility for the McArthur River Mine site to the Northern Territory government just 50-100 years into an expected 1,000-year rehabilitation and monitoring process.Glencore is proposing to expand its operations in Borroloola for another 20 years from 2018 and, according to its draft environmental im
  
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• Alan Titchmarsh hits out at road-widening scheme

  25-08-2017 08:49 via bbc.co.uk
  Proposals to expand the A3 at a junction with the M25 could mean the loss of 500 trees at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden Wisley.
  
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• UK 'can halve oil imports by banning new petrol and diesel cars in 2030'

  25-08-2017 08:15 via theguardian.com
  Target of 2040 to ban sale of conventional cars should be made more ambitious, says reportAn ambitious target to phase out sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 could halve UK oil imports, a study by environmental and aid organisations suggests.The government has announced plans to ban the sale of conventional combustion engine cars and vans by 2040 as part of its efforts to tackle air pollution and climate change, a move the groups welcomed as a step in the right direction. Continue readi
  
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• Fallen police and fake sheep: news from everywhere – in pictures

  25-08-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  What do you do if smog has made your fields unfit for grazing? Put sculptures of sheep on them instead. Lu Guang’s shot of phoney livestock in China is just one of many intriguing images from the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France Continue reading...
  
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• China's fake sheep shame: news from everywhere – in pictures

  25-08-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  What do you do if smog has made your fields unfit for grazing? Put sculptures of sheep on them instead. Lu Guang’s shot of phoney livestock in China is just one of many intriguing images from the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France Continue reading...
  
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• Rhino horn sales: banking on extinction

  25-08-2017 07:05 via theguardian.com
  Paula Kahumbu: The sale of rhino horn in South Africa won’t help save rhinos, but it will benefit organised crime
  South Africa has just launched the first ever legal rhino horn auction. If you are based in South Africa and would like to buy some rhino horn you can place your bid here. This is not a government auction, although it is sanctioned by the South African government. It has been organised by private rhino rancher, John Hume, who took the government to court and won the right to s
  
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• The tent is a trap for a wasp used to flying up out of danger

  25-08-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  West Knoyle, Wiltshire It skitters up the fabric to the pinnacle, dropping down several feet then looping back up again, and again, and againTaking respite from the hubbub of milling outdoor and bushcraft enthusiasts attending the Wilderness Gathering, I lie back under the shade of a conical bell tent. Gazing upwards into the canvas peak I watch a wasp skittering up the ivory fabric to the pinnacle, dropping down several feet then looping back up again, and again, and again. Related: Conservatio
  
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• Australian firm unveils plan to convert carbon emissions into 'green' concrete

  25-08-2017 01:30 via theguardian.com
  Initiative to convert CO2 into solid carbonates aims to produce building materials on commercial scale by 2020An Australian pilot project capturing carbon emissions and storing them in building materials aims to have a full-scale production plant by 2020.Mineral Carbonation International, an Australian company developing carbon-utilisation technology will officially launch its technology and research program at the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources on Friday. Continue reading...
  
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• Semi-automated truck convoys get green light for UK trials

  25-08-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Government allocates £8.1m to trials of ‘platooning’ which proponents say could cut congestion and hauliers’ fuel costsThe government has given the go-ahead for the first trials of convoys of semi-automated trucks on UK motorways.Up to three wirelessly connected HGVs will travel in convoy, with acceleration, braking and steering controlled by the lead vehicle, a concept named platooning. Each lorry will have a driver in the cab ready to retake control at any time.Continue
  
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• Historic Surrey gardens under threat from road-widening scheme

  25-08-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Grade II*-listed Garden Wisley could lose 10,000 sq metres of woodland if proposals are approved, warns horticultural charity Related: Everything in the garden is political – even at Hampton Court Palace | Patrick Barkham One of the country’s most important horticultural gardens is under threat from a road-widening scheme, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.Continue reading...
  
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• Historic Surrey gardens under threat from road-widening plan

  25-08-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Grade II*-listed Garden Wisley could lose 10,000 sq metres of woodland if proposals are approved, warns horticultural charity Related: Everything in the garden is political – even at Hampton Court Palace | Patrick Barkham One of the country’s most important horticultural gardens is under threat from a road-widening scheme, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.Continue reading...
  
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