Environment news

• Climate change challenges the survival of fish across the world

  13-09-2017 23:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  Climate change will force many amphibians, mammals and birds to move to cooler areas outside their normal ranges, provided they can find space and a clear trajectory among our urban developments and growing cities.
  
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• Cost of U.S. Solar Drops 75 percent in Six Years, Ahead of Federal Goal

  13-09-2017 23:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Trump administration has announced that a federal goal to slash the cost of utility-scale solar energy to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020 has been met early. The goal, set by the Obama administration in 2011 and known as the SunShot Initiative, represents a 75 percent reduction in the cost of U.S. solar in just six years. It makes solar energy-cost competitive with electricity generated by fossil fuels.
  
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• The Guardian view of offshore wind: cheaper and greener | Editorial

  13-09-2017 20:47 via theguardian.com
  Electricity generated from whirling fans among the waves means that nuclear is rightly vanishing as the answer to meet our energy needs and our climate goalsThe precipitous drop in the price of electricity from offshore wind turbines should be a tipping point for green technology. In 2014 the current generated by a forest of giant whirling fans out at sea was priced at around £150 per megawatt hour. In the latest auction this week the comparable cost dropped as low as £57.50/MWh. Eve
  
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• Orchid gives up the secrets of its success

  13-09-2017 20:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Science is laying bare the secrets of orchids, one of the biggest families of flowering plant.
  
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• New 'real world' diesel tests fail to prevent rush hour pollution peak

  13-09-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: new tests are intended to close loopholes but cars can still emit excess fumes in slow traffic, data showsNew “real world” emissions tests fail to prevent high levels of pollution from diesel cars during rush hour, according to new data.Diesel vehicles are the main cause of the UK’s widespread levels of illegal air pollution, with the VW cheating scandal exposing the fact that virtually all diesel cars emitted far more toxic fumes than in official laboratory based te
  
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• Wax On, Melt Off

  13-09-2017 19:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  Drexel University researchers have made a discovery that could create roads that melt off ice and snow during winter storms. Their secret? — Adding a little paraffin wax to the road’s concrete mix.
  
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• End the secrecy over badger cull zones | Letters

  13-09-2017 19:10 via theguardian.com
  People must be told where the government’s badger culling programme will take place, say Jonathon Porritt, Mark Jones, Alick Simmons and Chris Cheeseman. Plus an alternative to shooting badgers suggested by David HurryThousands more badgers are to be killed in new and extended government-licensed control zones (Huge rise in badger culling will see up to 33,500 animals shot, 12 September).The government believes badger killing will eliminate bovine tuberculosis but won’t publish detai
  
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• NASA Sees Hurricane Jose In Between Bahamas and Bermuda

  13-09-2017 18:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  NASA’s Terra satellite is one of many satellites keeping a close eye on Hurricane Jose and saw the storm between the Bahamas and Bermuda.
  
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• New UBC Research Suggests Bird Songs Isolate Species

  13-09-2017 18:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  Two birds that look the same, but have songs so different they can’t recognize each other, should be considered distinct species, suggests new UBC research.
  
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• Flannels not fatbergs! The eco-friendly alternatives to wet wipes

  13-09-2017 18:04 via theguardian.com
  A ‘monster’ blockage has been discovered in London sewers and wet wipes are a major contributor. But from makeup removal to household cleaning, what should we be using instead?Images of melting icebergs have long proved inspirational to environmentalists and politicians seeking to mitigate the threat of man-made climate change. So why is it that images of giant fatbergs clogging our sewers can’t seem to stop people flushing wet wipes down the loo?These fatty underground tumours
  
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• Low-Level Radiation Less Harmful to Health Than Other Lifestyle Risks

  13-09-2017 18:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  Human populations have always been exposed to ionizing radiation, and more so in modern life due to its use in medicine, industry and the armed forces. Whilst the risks to human health from medium and high-level radiation are relatively well-understood, the risks at lower levels are less clear.  Mixed messages about the safety of low doses of radiation from different sources have created confusion for the public and for policy makers.  
  
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• Helping Chinese Farmers Tackle Erosion, Increase Profits

  13-09-2017 17:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  On the steep farming slopes of China, Bozhi Wu and his research associates are finding ways to improve economic and environmental stability.
  
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• Latin America Could Lose Up to 90 Percent of its Coffee-Growing Land by 2050

  13-09-2017 16:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  Studies have previously estimated that the amount of land worldwide suitable for growing coffee could shrink by an estimated 50 percent by 2050 as global temperatures rise, rain patterns change, and ecosystems shift due to climate change. But a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences predicts a far worse situation for Latin America, the world’s largest coffee supplier: The region could lose nearly 90 percent of its coffee-growing land by mid-cen
  
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• Type 2 Diabetes is a Reversible Condition

  13-09-2017 15:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  A body of research putting people with Type 2 diabetes on a low calorie diet has confirmed the underlying causes of the condition and established that it is reversible.
  
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• London's most polluted schools to be given air-quality audits

  13-09-2017 15:42 via theguardian.com
  Mayor Sadiq Khan announces first 50 schools to undergo audits to help identify measures to minimise the impact of pollution on childrenThe most polluted schools in London are to be audited as part of the mayor’s drive to clean up toxic air across the capital.Earlier this year a Guardian investigation revealed that hundreds of thousands of children are being exposed to illegal levels of damaging air pollution from diesel vehicles at schools and nurseries.Continue reading...
  
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• An important process that fuels harmful algal blooms investigated in water bodies across Canada

  13-09-2017 15:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  For many Canadians, summer time means time at the lake, swimming, fishing, boating, and relaxing. Nothing can spoil this experience like blue-green mats of muck, caused by algal blooms. These blooms negatively affect not only recreational activities but also put drinking water source, property values, wildlife, and human health at risk. In the 1970s, scientists discovered that the nutrient phosphorus caused algal blooms, which led to new regulations and improved sewage treatment. Nevertheless, b
  
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• Belfast scientists design flexible organic battery

  13-09-2017 15:04 via bbc.co.uk
  Queen's University scientists design a flexible long-life battery that could be used in pacemakers.
  
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• Pipeline pain relief on horizon with spill-resistant bitumen

  13-09-2017 15:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  Ian Gates describes each pebble of bitumen as resembling a liquid-filled headache capsule and, for an Alberta struggling to build pipelines, this tiny package could spell pain relief indeed.Freshly patented and weeks away from pilot-scale production, the professor’s revolutionary heavy oil and bitumen pellets may finally provide a pipeline-free solution to getting Alberta’s largest oil reserves to market in a cheap, sustainable manner, while vastly reducing the environmental risk of
  
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• Why are there so many berries this year?

  13-09-2017 14:57 via bbc.co.uk
  Berries are appearing early this year - and promise to last much longer than usual, according to experts.
  
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• Chocolate industry drives rainforest disaster in Ivory Coast

  13-09-2017 14:30 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: As global demand for chocolate booms, ‘dirty’ beans from deforested national parks have entered big business supply chainsCocoa is king in Ivory Coast where forests make way for beansThe world’s chocolate industry is driving deforestation on a devastating scale in West Africa, the Guardian can reveal. Cocoa traders who sell to Mars, Nestlé, Mondelez and other big brands buy beans grown illegally inside protected areas in the Ivory Coast, where rainforest cover
  
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• Rod Sims contradicts Coalition MPs' claims AGL is abusing market power

  13-09-2017 11:53 via theguardian.com
  Head of ACCC shoots down talk AGL is breaching act, but says lack of energy competition is pushing up billsThe head of Australia’s competition watchdog has quashed accusations from government MPs that AGL is misusing its market power by refusing to sell the Liddell power station to a rival – but says a lack of competition in the energy sector is inflating power prices for consumers.
  Ahead of a major speech next week to the National Press Club on energy, the chairman of the Australian
  
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• UK cities expected to get millions of pounds for green energy projects

  13-09-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Ministers are thought to be planning to offer £3m for initiatives such as solar panels on social housingGreen energy projects run by cities and local authorities around the UK stand to receive millions of pounds of government support, providing another fillip for renewable power just a day after the subsidised price of windfarms hit a record low.The Guardian understands that ministers this autumn will offer more than £3m to help local leaders build low carbon initiatives, such as ins
  
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• Harvest songs replaced by midnight combines

  13-09-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  The Long Mynd, Shropshire There have been ponies here since the iron age hillfort was occupied, but few workers toil the fields at harvest time Two white ponies were grazing on the high slopes above Carding Mill Valley. A mare and colt, white in the soft light, which felt more autumnal than was usual for the turn, grazed on a hidden lawn surrounded by bracken and heather. Up there, they seemed still, absorbed in feeding, but whenever a dog barked in the distance, they became watchful. A pair of
  
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• The Coalition attacks environmental groups with advice straight from the mining lobby | Tim Flannery

  13-09-2017 03:40 via theguardian.com
  The lobby’s recommendations for environmental charities would set a dangerous precedent and could hamper any community group the government deems to be in conflict with its worldviewTens of millions of dollars are spent annually on political lobbying for the interests of the fossil fuel sector. That investment serves the interests of a small amount of company shareholders in keeping a legacy industry alive, despite the availability of newer, clean technologies, at lower cost. In the wake o
  
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• UK apple growers' labour shortage 'pushing them towards cliff edge'

  13-09-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Industry body warns over need for seasonal workers after Brexit as growers face 20% shortfall in supply of labourUK apple growers are in the grip of a 20% shortfall in the supply of seasonal labour, pushing them towards “a cliff edge” as Brexit nears, the industry has warned.At the start of the annual British apple harvesting season with more than 20 indigenous varieties going on sale in supermarkets, the main trade body for both apples and pears says worries about future labour avai
  
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