Environment news

• The scent of privet: Country diary 100 years ago

  27-08-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 31 August 1917When the heavy showers had passed, the sun burst out from behind drifting clouds, and studded the dripping hedges with diamonds. For ten yards or more privet, in full flower broke the monotony of thorn and bramble, and here fifteen or twenty red admiral butterflies fanned their gorgeous wings as they sipped the sweets. The air was heavy with the scent of privet. Golden–rod, a blaze beneath the hedge, attracted other red admir
  
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• Renewable energy generates enough power to run 70% of Australian homes

  27-08-2017 20:09 via theguardian.com
  Renewable Energy Index shows sector will generate power to run 90% of homes once wind and solar projects being built in 2016-17 are completedAustralia’s renewable energy sector is within striking distance of matching national household power consumption, cranking out enough electricity to run 70% of homes last financial year, new figures show.The first Australian Renewable Energy Index, produced by Green Energy Markets, finds the sector will generate enough power to run 90% of homes once w
  
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• Houston faces ‘historic’ flooding from Hurricane Harvey – video

  27-08-2017 18:06 via theguardian.com
  Houston, Texas, is facing rising floodwaters after intense rainfall from Hurricane Harvey. More than 60cm (2ft) of rain has fallen on the city in 24 hours and the already ‘catastrophic’ flooding is expected to worsen as the bad weather lingers for several days. People in some communities have been advised to climb to their roofs to escape the rising watersHurricane Harvey death toll rises as Houston faces ‘historic’ floodingContinue reading...
  
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• Flooding in Houston after hurricane Harvey – in pictures

  27-08-2017 17:40 via theguardian.com
  The Texas city has been warned it faces ‘historic’ flooding after intense rainfall in the aftermath of the hurricane, with heavy downpours expected to continue for days and some residents told to take refuge on rooftops rather than in attics unless they have an axe or other means to break through Continue reading...
  
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• Snow-go: why Ben Nevis is frost-free for the first time in 11 years

  27-08-2017 17:00 via theguardian.com
  The highest mountain in the British Isles is currently without snow – and researchers believe permanent white mountain tops could soon be a thing of the pastAin’t no mountain dry enough? Ben Nevis may well have grown by a metre last year but now it is also nude from basecamp up for the first time in 11 years.You would expect snow under foot atop the summit’s stone cairn at the lofty height of 1,345m, not a blunt, barren crown. So what on earth happened to the formerly covered p
  
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• How to offset Trump's climate science ignorance – plant 10bn trees

  27-08-2017 16:00 via theguardian.com
  An ambitious tree-planting campaign aims to counteract the CO2 released by Donald Trump’s climate policies A campaign to plant enough trees to offset Donald Trump’s climate policies is under way. Organisers hope to plant 10bn trees by 24 December 2017, with the last one being a Christmas tree planted in front of the White House.
  The organisers of Trump Forest are asking people to donate trees to make up for the 650m tonnes of CO2 that will be released into the atmosphere by 2025 if t
  
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• How Slovenia is helping its ‘baby dragons’

  27-08-2017 11:30 via theguardian.com
  The eyeless subterranean salamanders that live in the watery depths of Postojna Cave are under threat – but there’s hope in sightPostojna Cave in Slovenia is one of Europe’s longest cave networks and one of the world’s most spectacular subterranean tourist sites. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come here every year to gaze at its wonders: its huge stalactites and stalagmites, its curtains of coloured rock and bridges that have been carved out of the local limestone by t
  
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• Why I’m proud to ride an e-bike

  27-08-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  They speed you uphill, and get you to work or the shops without sweat. Yet detractors still cry ‘cheat’. Here we test the latest e-bikes, and whiz past outdated macho attitudes to cyclingThe idea of power-assisted cycling seems to exasperate some people. When I talk about e-bikes, I hear: “It’s cheating!” and “The point of cycling is exercise.” It’s not cheating because we are not racing, life is not a competition and neither is going to the shops.
  
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• The eco guide to zero wasters

  27-08-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The zero-waste revolution has been postponed, except on Instagram. But there are some constructive steps to be takenI’ve been hearing about a “zero waste” world for half my life. What would it look like? It would be rubbish-free for starters, no more single-use plastic being shovelled into landfill. Shelves would be full of intelligent products designed to have a second useful life. Materials that couldn’t be reused would gently turn into compost, nourishing the earth as
  
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• Bee inspired: why Oslo has put ecological riches at the heart of the city

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Norway wants urban gardeners to cultivate wildflowers and keep hives to reverse a decline in biodiversityOn a sloping meadow near the centre of Oslo, red-tailed bumblebees gather pollen from hairy violets, spiders spin webs between maiden’s tears while hoverflies buzz between yellow daisies and white yarrow.Such a bucolic scene might normally be associated more with a rural past than an urban future, but it is part of a thoroughly modern attempt to reverse the decline of bee populations an
  
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• Bee inspired: why Oslo has put cological riches at the heart of the city

  27-08-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Norway wants urban gardeners to cultivate wildflowers and keep hives to reverse a decline in biodiversityOn a sloping meadow near the centre of Oslo, red-tailed bumblebees gather pollen from hairy violets, spiders spin webs between maiden’s tears while hoverflies buzz between yellow daisies and white yarrow.Such a bucolic scene might normally be associated more with a rural past than an urban future, but it is part of a thoroughly modern attempt to reverse the decline of bee populations an
  
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