Environment news

• Air pollution cuts three years off lifespans in northern China

  11-09-2017 22:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  There are currently an estimated 4.5 billion people around the world exposed to levels of particulate air pollution that are at least twice what the World Health Organization considers safe. Yet the impact of sustained exposure to pollution on a person’s life expectancy has largely remained a vexingly unanswered question—until now.
  
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• The Guardian view on exploring Saturn: an inspiring distraction | Editorial

  11-09-2017 20:44 via theguardian.com
  The great success of the Cassini mission deserves our appreciation, but Nasa’s work on Earth’s climate matters moreThe Cassini mission, which will end on Friday, is one of the most wonderful achievements of the human race. A slack-jawed awe is the only proper reaction to the spacecraft’s travels and to its intricate route over seven years to Saturn, aided by the slingshot effects of its grazing the orbits of the inner planets, first Venus and then Earth, as it passed them in va
  
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• Hinkley nuclear power is being priced out by renewables | Nils Pratley

  11-09-2017 20:12 via theguardian.com
  The UK should concentrate on wind- and gas-fired stations, and involve nuclear only if it can vaguely compete on priceHinkley Point C nuclear power station was conceived in the days when offshore wind cost £150 per megawatt hour and a few misguided souls, some of them government ministers, thought a barrel of oil was heading towards $200.Successive governments swallowed the line that Hinkley represented a plausible answer to the UK’s threefold energy conundrum – keeping the lig
  
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• Nuclear plans 'should be rethought after fall in offshore windfarm costs'

  11-09-2017 20:02 via theguardian.com
  Lib Dems and green groups say reduced price of state support should sound death knell for plants such as Hinkley Point CThe government is under pressure to reconsider its commitment to a new generation of nuclear power stations after the cost of offshore wind power reached a record low.Experts said green energy had reached a tipping point in the UK after two windfarms secured a state-backed price for their output that was nearly half the level awarded last year to Britain’s first new nucle
  
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• UK diesel car values dive by up to a quarter amid pollution crackdown

  11-09-2017 19:22 via theguardian.com
  Second-hand Vauxhall, Audi and BMW diesels have fallen most in price, according to research
  The value of some used diesel cars has dropped by as much as 26% since the start of this year amid a crackdown on older vehicles. Second-hand Vauxhall, Audi and BMW diesels have fallen most in price, according to research by the car-buying website Motorway.co.uk. The average used Vauxhall Corsa with a diesel engine has slumped in price from £2,160 to just £1,592 since the start of 2017, a drop
  
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• Put a price on urban trees – and halt this chainsaw massacre | Patrick Barkham

  11-09-2017 18:49 via theguardian.com
  From chestnuts in south London to elms in Sheffield, they improve mental health, and stem pollution and floods. Yet policymakers fail to see them as assetsIt’s a grim season for urban trees. The usual bustle of bicycles beneath a grand parade of 140-year-old chestnut trees that crosses Tooting Common, in south London, will cease tomorrow. Wandsworth council is closing Chestnut Avenue, the chainsaws are readied, and more than 50 much-loved mature trees will soon be chopped down. Related: Mi
  
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• Natural Selection review – a risky celebration of the dastardly life of birds

  11-09-2017 17:59 via theguardian.com
  Former Newington Library, London
  Police chases, undercover detectives, secret societies: this bird-themed installation, by artist Andy Holden and his ornithologist father Peter, is full of rough-edged surprisesIt sounds just charming: a long look at all the feathered friends flitting around our back gardens. Yet the cosy material in Natural Selection, an exhibition by father and son duo Andy and Peter Holden, turns out to have more drama than Hitchcock’s The Birds, rife with dastardly tale
  
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• Hinkley nuclear power is no match for renewables | Nils Pratley

  11-09-2017 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Energy capacity auction shows offshore wind dramatically outstrips nuclear - and ministers must take noteHinkley Point C nuclear power station was conceived in the days when offshore wind cost £150 per megawatt hour and a few misguided souls, some of them government ministers, thought a barrel of oil was heading towards $200.Successive governments swallowed the line that Hinkley represented a plausible answer to the UK’s threefold energy conundrum – keeping the lights on, reduc
  
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• Campaigner to fight Ineos in court over order curbing fracking protests

  11-09-2017 16:43 via theguardian.com
  Joe Boyd is appealing to public for donations to challenge petrochemicals giant over ‘anti-democratic’ injunctionA second campaigner is challenging a sweeping injunction obtained by a petrochemicals giant against anti-fracking activists that has been criticised for profoundly limiting protests.Joe Boyd, an anti-fracking campaigner, is going to the high court in London on Tuesday in an attempt to stop the injunction which has been secured by the multinational firm, Ineos. He is appeal
  
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• Huge increase in badger culling will see up to 33,500 animals shot

  11-09-2017 16:40 via theguardian.com
  Ministers say culls are vital for cutting TB infections in cattle but scientists say there is little evidence to support the policy Up to 33,500 badgers will be shot this autumn in an attempt to control tuberculosis in cattle, a huge rise from the 10,000 killed in 2016.The government has announced that 11 new badger cull areas have been licensed, adding to the 10 already in place. Devon now has six badger culls under way, with Somerset and Wiltshire having three each, with others in Cheshire, Co
  
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• Shark given refuge in Sydney rock pool – video report

  11-09-2017 16:33 via theguardian.com
  A small great white shark was rescued after it was found floundering on a beach in Sydney, Australia, on Monday. The shark was found by beachgoers in shallow waters at Manly beach and was moved to a beach rockpool to be monitored by authoritiesPool shark: beached great white given temporary refuge in Sydney rock pool
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• Escape from hurricane Irma was not an option for most of us in the Caribbean | Gabrielle Thongs

  11-09-2017 15:18 via theguardian.com
  ‘Climate change’ does not adequately capture the chaos brought to these islands by the extreme weather. Poverty will make the recovery even more difficult• Gabrielle Thongs specialises in disaster planning and spatial modelling at the University of the West IndiesThe winds and rain came first, usual for this time of year. Crops drown in the sodden earth, the price of vegetables and fruits in the market rises and, as the rain and wind beat down on the tin roofs and wooden frames
  
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• Row over AI that 'identifies gay faces'

  11-09-2017 15:17 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers and LGBT groups clash over facial recognition tech that supposedly spots gay people.
  
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• 10 greatest sightings, so far, from NOAA's exploration of the deepwater Pacific

  11-09-2017 15:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  Today, the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer is embarking on the last leg of NOAA’s three-year mission to explore the deep Pacific Ocean when it heads to the Musicians Seamounts and the Hawaiian Islands.Starting September 7, you, too, can join the expedition virtually by following the live video streamed by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) diving down to the seafloor near Musicians Seamounts. Dives will continue through September 29, usually between 2:00 p.m.–12:00 a.m. Eastern, depending
  
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• Badger culling gets go ahead in 11 new areas of England

  11-09-2017 14:35 via bbc.co.uk
  A vaccination programme to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis is also restarting.
  
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• Could Germany make a new 'pizza connection' if Merkel signs up Greens?

  11-09-2017 13:51 via theguardian.com
  More than 20 years ago unlikely conservative-conservationist meetings were held in a Bonn Italian restaurant, now a ruling coalition seems possibleOn the evening of 1 June 1995 an unlikely group gathered for an informal dinner at an Italian restaurant in Bonn, then the seat of the German parliament. On one side of the table at Sassella were delegates of the Green party, on the other side the establishment they had gone into politics to oppose: suited and gelled young members of the Christian Dem
  
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• UK green energy expensive? Not any more. From now on it's cheap

  11-09-2017 13:38 via theguardian.com
  A record low price set for offshore wind power is good for UK jobs, the taxpayer and household bills. It is bad news for Hinkley C and the nuclear industryThe persistent myth that green energy is expensive has been shredded by the revelation that windfarms will be built around Britain’s coast far more cheaply than new nuclear reactors.New power stations in the UK today are usually only built with the certainty provided by subsidies paid through energy bills, so the record low guaranteed pr
  
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• Cassini: Saturn probe to set up death plunge

  11-09-2017 12:56 via bbc.co.uk
  The Cassini spacecraft is about to send itself towards destruction in the ringed planet's atmosphere.
  
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• Pool shark: beached great white given temporary refuge in Sydney rock pool

  11-09-2017 11:49 via theguardian.com
  Public pool closed to swimmers after injured marine predator transferred for observation by wildlife experts A juvenile great white shark was rescued after washing up on a Sydney beach – and given a new temporary home in a nearby public swimming pool.The shark, which washed ashore on Manly beach in Sydney’s north about midday, appeared to be injured and onlookers alerted marine rescue and lifeguards.Continue reading...
  
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• Beached great white shark given temporary refuge in Sydney swimming pool

  11-09-2017 11:49 via theguardian.com
  Manly rock pool closed to swimmers after injured marine predator transferred for observation by wildlife experts A great white shark wouldn’t usually be a welcome sight at the beach, but on one of the first warm days of spring, Sydney beachgoers were more than hospitable.The juvenile shark washed ashore at Manly on Monday and was thrashing around in the surf until locals called wildlife rescue. Continue reading...
  
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• Offshore wind power cheaper than new nuclear

  11-09-2017 11:15 via bbc.co.uk
  Figures from the government are seen as a milestone in the advance of renewable energy.
  
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• Cycling: Groups call for action on 'car-dooring'

  11-09-2017 10:06 via bbc.co.uk
  A door-opening method that involves using the "wrong" hand should be taught to drivers, groups say.
  
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• Huge boost for renewables as offshore windfarm costs fall to record low

  11-09-2017 08:55 via theguardian.com
  Green groups say record low price should sound death knell for Hinkley Point C after subsidy auction sets price for windpower below even lowest forecastOffshore windfarms are to be built for a record low price in the UK early next decade, after developers bid far more aggressively than expected for a multimillion-pound pot of government subsidies. Related: Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial newsContinue reading...
  
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• 'They lied': Bolivia's untouchable Amazon lands at risk once more | Myles McCormick

  11-09-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Locals blame coca interests for the state’s broken promise on protecting Tipnis national park, biodiversity hotspot and home to thousands of indigenous peopleWhen Ovidio Teco’s Amazon homeland was declared “untouchable” by the Bolivian government in 2011, his war had been won. The concerns of people like him had been listened to: their beautiful and ancient land would not be carved in two by a 190-mile highway. Continue reading...
  
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• Stop talking right now about the threat of climate change. It’s here; it’s happening | Bill McKibben

  11-09-2017 06:59 via theguardian.com
  Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, flash fires, droughts: all of them tell us one thing – we need to rethink how we live without delayFor the sake of keeping things manageable, let’s confine the discussion to a single continent and a single week: North America over the last seven days.In Houston they got down to the hard and unromantic work of recovery from what economists announced was probably the most expensive storm in US history, and which weather analysts confirmed was certainly
  
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• China to ban production of petrol and diesel cars 'in the near future'

  11-09-2017 06:52 via theguardian.com
  Announcement aimed at tackling pollution will prove a huge incentive to development and sale of electric and hybrid vehiclesChina, the world’s biggest vehicle market, is considering a ban on the production and sale of fossil fuel cars in a major boost to the production of electric vehicles as Beijing seeks to ease pollution.Related: Britain to ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040Continue reading...
  
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• Our native grass snake has been promoted but remains elusive

  11-09-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Little Bradley Ponds, South DevonTaxonomy tussles aside, spotting any grass snake can be far from easy, and I circled the ponds several timesThis small nature reserve was my final stop: a tranquil oasis surrounded by woodland and set back from the road near Bovey Tracey in south Devon. I had spent the morning visiting gardens in search of grass snakes, nosing around compost heaps and scanning the edges of ponds without luck. Reptiles known to inhabit one glorious wildlife-friendly property on th
  
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• Hostage to myopic self-interest: climate science is watered down under political scrutiny | Ian Dunlop

  11-09-2017 03:27 via theguardian.com
  Scientific reticence allows politicians to neglect the real dangers we face. But waiting for perfect information means it will be too late to actThree decades ago when serious debate on human-induced climate change began globally, a great deal of statesmanship was on display. A preparedness to recognise that this was an issue which transcended nation states, ideologies and political parties. An issue which had to be addressed proactively in the long-term interests of humanity, even if the existe
  
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• Marriage equality: don't yell at me about it, says Barnaby Joyce - politics live

  11-09-2017 03:15 via theguardian.com
  Mark Dreyfus says legislation to stop vilification on marriage survey could be passed this week, while Pauline Hanson says ‘a lot of the gays don’t even agree with same-sex marriage’ 2.02am BSTYouGov, a UK import to the Australian polling market, held a briefing this morning with their chief executive, Stephan Shakespeare.YouGov has a good record in the UK – correctly predicting a hung parliament before the 2017 election and accurately predicting 93% of constituencies. &l
  
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• Marriage equality: Coalition and Labor expect deal to restrict vilification - politics live

  11-09-2017 01:15 via theguardian.com
  After meetings over the weekend, Labor’s Mark Dreyfus predicts a resolution on legislation to stop vilification on marriage survey to be passed this week 12.09am BSTHousekeeping 1.In the lower house, we have private members’ bills and committee biz this morning. In the arvo, we move on to government business including the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Welfare Reform) Bill 2017. Related: Welfare crackdown in federal budget sees jobseekers face drug-testing The immigration min
  
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