Environment news

• Stanford researchers team up to reduce pollution and improve health

  15-09-2017 21:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  Stephen Luby’s epiphany came to him 30,000 feet up in the air. The Stanford epidemiologist was flying over India when he realized the view from his window seat was adequate to identify brick kilns on the ground below. The insight was startling for its potential to shed light on an environmental nightmare that kills thousands of people every year.
  
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• Study shows electronic health information exchanges could cut billions in Medicare spending

  15-09-2017 21:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Spending on entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid consumes some two-thirds of all federal spending, but new research from the University of Notre Dame shows that information technology investments in health care lead to significant spending reductions — potentially in the billions of dollars.
  
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• New Method for Identifying Carbon Compounds Derived from Fossil Fuels

  15-09-2017 20:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a laboratory instrument that can measure how much of the carbon in many carbon-containing materials was derived from fossil fuels. This will open the way for new methods in the biofuels and bioplastics industries, in scientific research, and environmental monitoring. Among other things, it will allow scientists to measure how much of the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere came from burning fossil fuels, an
  
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• Satellite Eyeing Tropical Storm Jose Churning Coastal Waters

  15-09-2017 20:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  Although Tropical Storm Jose was located off the coast of southeastern U.S. it is stirring up the waters along the U.S. East coast, causing dangerous conditions. NOAA’s GOES East satellite saw Jose centered about 360 miles northeast of the southwestern Bahamas on Sept. 15.
  
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• Satellite View Reveals Tropical Depression 15E Still Struggling

  15-09-2017 20:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  Satellite imagery showed that Tropical Depression 15E continued to struggle to organize while still being affected by vertical wind shear.
  
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• Satellite Sees Atlantic Tropical Depression 14 Forms off Africa's West Coast

  15-09-2017 20:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  NOAA’s GOES East satellite captured a visible image of the latest tropical cyclone to form in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. Tropical Depression 14E formed, despite battling northerly wind shear.
  
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• Virtual reality alleviates pain, anxiety for pediatric patients

  15-09-2017 19:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  As patients at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford undergo routine medical procedures, they are being whisked away to swim under the sea, zap flying cheeseburgers in outer space, catch basketballs using their heads and fly on paper airplanes through the sky, thanks to virtual-reality technology, which is being implemented throughout the hospital to help ease patients’ feelings of pain and anxiety.Packard Children’s is one of the first hospitals in the country
  
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• People of color still exposed to more air pollution

  15-09-2017 19:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  Pollution exposure for minority groups is still a big problem, according to a new nationwide study conducted by a team of researchers led by CEE professor Julian Marshall. The study found that during a 10-year period, little progress was made in reducing disparities between whites and people of color when it comes to being exposed to harmful air pollution emitted by vehicles. The study focused specifically on outdoor concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, which is a transportation-related
  
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• 'Long live Cassini': Nasa scientists say farewell

  15-09-2017 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  The chief scientists who worked on the spacecraft react after it plunged into Saturn's atmosphere.
  
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• UK's largest 'disco soup' attracts 1,000 people to London market

  15-09-2017 18:50 via theguardian.com
  Hundreds of volunteers gather to prepare soup and dance as part of global movement to inspire action against food waste Visitors to a community food market and bar in south London on Friday were presented with an unusual combination of pleasures: a soup disco. Volunteers and customers at Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant and Castle gathered to chop vegetables and tear basil leaves while professional chefs directed them and DJs from the nightclub Ministry of Sound spun records in the background.
  
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• IU discovery could reduce nuclear waste with improved method to chemically engineer molecules

  15-09-2017 18:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  A discovery by Indiana University researchers could advance the long-term storage of nuclear waste, an increasingly burdensome and costly task for the public and private agencies that protect people from these harmful chemicals.
  
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• New Orleans Greenery Post-Katrina Reflects Social Demographics More Than Storm Impact

  15-09-2017 18:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  Popular portrayals of “nature reclaiming civilization” in flood-damaged New Orleans, Louisianna, neighborhoods romanticize an urban ecology shaped by policy-driven socioecological disparities in redevelopment investment, ecologists argue in a new paper in the Ecological Society of America’s open access journal Ecosphere.
  
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• Wolves Understand Cause and Effect Better Than Dogs

  15-09-2017 18:21 via feedproxy.google.com
  A rattle will only make noise if you shake it. Children learn this principle of cause and effect early on in their lives. However, animals like the wolf also understand such connections and are better at this than their domesticated descendants. Researchers at the Wolf Science Center of the Vetmeduni Vienna say that wolves have a better causal understanding than dogs and that they follow human-given communicative cues equally well. The study in Scientific Reports provides the insight t
  
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• Green groups claim 'important victory' in challenge to legal costs rules

  15-09-2017 18:19 via theguardian.com
  Environmental campaigners say rules now favour those who want to hold government to account – not the other way roundConservation and environmental groups have claimed an “important victory” in their high court challenge to new legal costs rules which they say make it much harder to bring cases to protect the environment. In February, the government scrapped fixed-cost caps that limited how much people and charities had to pay if they lost a case against a public body.Continue
  
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• Driving force: are electric cars crowding out traditional engines?

  15-09-2017 18:13 via theguardian.com
  As Frankfurt motor show puts battery vehicles centre stage, the tide could be turning against combustion enginesWhen Angela Merkel addressed the Frankfurt motor show, it was not to a backdrop of revving engines but an exhibition of noiseless electric Golfs, South Korean hybrids and Japanese fuel-cell cars.The silence should have pleased the chancellor, who in the wake of the VW emissions scandal has hinted at a possible ban on sales of the diesel cars for which German manufacturers are renowned.
  
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• Charities condemn rejection of changes to Lobbying Act

  15-09-2017 17:53 via theguardian.com
  Campaign groups fear most vulnerable will be left without a voice and say act has chilling effect on freedom of speechCharities have condemned ministers for rejecting changes to the Lobbying Act which were made by a government-commissioned review body. Campaign groups say they will be left unable to speak out for vulnerable and marginalised people in society because the law has a chilling effect on freedom of speech.The Lobbying Act restricts what non-governmental organisations can say in the ye
  
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• The Florida Keys are the canaries in the climate-change coalmine | Joanna Guthrie

  15-09-2017 16:35 via theguardian.com
  These complex, beautiful, fragile islands are a delicately balanced paradise. But their tipping point may have arrivedThe Florida Keys are still closed until further notice. On the far side of the blockade that inhabitants of the lower Keys negotiate to return to their homes, the US One highway, a tarmac spine over the limestone vertebrae of the islands, makes its way 127 miles down to Key West, battered and torn. Key West, final south-easterly outpost of mainland North America and the self-styl
  
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• Electric cars take centre stage at Frankfurt motor show

  15-09-2017 15:35 via theguardian.com
  Tide turns against combustion engines as carmakers including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Renault showcase battery vehicles When Angela Merkel addressed the Frankfurt motor show, it was not to a backdrop of revving engines but an exhibition of noiseless electric Golfs, South Korean hybrids and Japanese fuel-cell cars.The silence should have pleased the chancellor, who in the wake of the VW emissions scandal has hinted at a possible ban on sales of the diesel cars for which German manufacturers are ren
  
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• New study shows banning shark fin in the U.S. won't help save sharks

  15-09-2017 15:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new study published today in the scientific journal Marine Policy shows that banning the sale of shark fins within the United States can actually harm ongoing shark conservation efforts.David Shiffman of SFU’s Earth2Ocean research group and Robert Hueter from the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida say that a proposed nationwide ban on shark fin sales within the United States is a misguided and ineffective approach to protecting sharks.
  
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• Cassini: Probe incinerates on entry to Saturn

  15-09-2017 13:57 via bbc.co.uk
  The US-led Cassini space probe reaches a spectacular climax, burning up in Saturn's atmosphere.
  
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• 'Alarm bells we cannot ignore': world hunger rising for first time this century

  15-09-2017 12:30 via theguardian.com
  UN agencies warn conflict and climate change are undermining food security, causing chronic undernourishment and threatening to reverse years of progress The number of hungry people in the world has increased for the first time since the turn of the century, sparking concern that conflict and climate change could be reversing years of progress.In 2016, the number of chronically undernourished people reached 815 million, up 38 million from the previous year. The increase is due largely to the pro
  
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• Overfishing of North Sea may reduce after MEPs vote on fishing quotas

  15-09-2017 12:26 via theguardian.com
  Defra welcomes European vote which aims to secure long-term sustainability of North Sea fish stocksThe European parliament has voted on a series of measures likely to reduce overfishing in the North Sea which will affect the UK’s fishing fleet until Brexit takes effect and potentially beyond.The vote ensures that there will be limits to fishing quotas so that they cannot exceed levels regarded as sustainable by scientists. The outcome had been in doubt as MEPs voted on Thursday, but severa
  
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• Half of Canada's monitored wildlife is in decline, major study finds

  15-09-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  New report paints a bleak picture for wildlife in a country that is home to a quarter of the Earth’s wetlands, 8,500 rivers and more than 2m lakesA new analysis looking at the long term trends of more than 900 species of wildlife in Canada has found that half of them have seen their populations decline, including several species already listed as threatened or endangered in the country.The Living Planet Report Canada, released on Thursday by World Wildlife Fund Canada, paints a bleak pictu
  
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• The idea that climate scientists are in it for the cash has deep ideological roots

  15-09-2017 10:43 via theguardian.com
  Author and academic Nancy MacLean says cynicism about the motives of public servants, including government-backed climate scientists, can be traced to a group of neoliberals and their ‘toxic’ ideasYou’ll have heard that line of argument about cancer scientists, right?
  The one where they’re just in it for the government grant money and that they don’t really want to find a cure, because if they did they’d be out of a job?Continue reading...
  
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• Sound and fury signifies a lot – that's what the week in #auspol tells us | Katharine Murphy

  15-09-2017 08:22 via theguardian.com
  Posturing and blathering has become far more important than substance, and reflects the collective hole Australian politics finds itself in
  Congratulations Australia. Two years have passed without a leadership coup being launched against a sitting prime minister. In our unhinged system, that level of stability is a genuine achievement.
  So, hooray for #auspol. Except the voters are still ropeable, and politics doesn’t feel all that stable, does it? Continue reading...
  
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• The eco-warrior taking a chainsaw to Indonesia's illegal palm oil plantations

  15-09-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Biologist Rudi Putra is leading a movement to restore the region’s tropical rainforests, which are home to many endangered speciesArmed with a chainsaw and a copy of Indonesia’s environmental laws, biologist Rudi Putra and his team of eco-warriors have been identifying and cutting down illegal palm oil plantations and recovering the lost forests of the Leuser ecosystem.For decades, the exuberance of the largest rainforest in Indonesia’s north Sumatra region, has succumbed to th
  
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• California’s big battery experiment: a turning point for energy storage?

  15-09-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The world’s largest lithium-ion battery installed after the Aliso Canyon gas blowout has become a test case for the grid storage industryOn a paved expanse next to an electrical substation in Escondido, 30 miles north of downtown San Diego, sits a row of huge silver boxes. The site resembles a barracks, but instead of soldiers, the 24 containers house racks of battery packs. This is the largest lithium-ion battery in the world, according to its developers. When the local grid needs more po
  
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• On the vastness of the moor a stumpy gritstone shows the way

  15-09-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Redmires, Sheffield Scored by wind and rain there is something square-jawed about the stone known as Stump John The Head Stone stands, like a muted version of Easter Island’s moai, on grouse moors west of Sheffield, looking down on traffic hurrying along the A57. A fractured block of gritstone seamed and scored by wind and rain, there is something square-jawed about it, although it has other names: Stump John, for John Priestley of Overstones Farm, a place literally “over stones&rdqu
  
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• Miner supplying Mt Piper power station seeks urgent hearing over invalid licence

  15-09-2017 04:46 via theguardian.com
  Centennial Coal, whose licence was ruled invalid after its Springvale mine was found to be polluting Sydney’s water, wants matter resolved in two weeksThe miner that supplies Energy Australia’s Mount Piper coal power station with coal has sought an urgently expedited court hearing to establish how it can continue to operate without a valid licence.But Centennial Coal did so without making a formal application for an early hearing and without evidence supporting the need for it, leavi
  
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• Cassini: Saturn probe heads towards destruction

  15-09-2017 03:24 via bbc.co.uk
  The end is near for US-led space mission as it flies towards a fiery impact with the ringed planet.
  
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• Cassini: Saturn 'death dive' spacecraft in numbers

  15-09-2017 01:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Cassini's about to crash into Saturn, but here's what it's achieved over the last two decades.
  
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• EU report on weedkiller safety copied text from Monsanto study

  15-09-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: EU’s food safety watchdog recommended that glyphosate was safe but pages of report were identical to application from pesticide makerThe European food safety authority (Efsa) based a recommendation that a chemical linked to cancer was safe for public use on an EU report that copied and pasted analyses from a Monsanto study, the Guardian can reveal.Glyphosate is the core ingredient in Monsanto’s $4.75bn (£3.5bn) a year RoundUp weedkiller brand and a battle over its re
  
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