Environment news

• The night heron: at home on the Somerset Levels

  17-09-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Devastated land, scarred by peat digging, has been transformed into suitable habitats for birds unfamiliar to the UKThe news that night herons had bred in Britain for the first time barely registered on the ornithological Richter scale. Perhaps this was because it happened on the Somerset Levels, the UK’s new hotspot for long-legged wading birds.Over the past couple of decades, first little egret, then little bittern, great white and cattle egrets, and now night herons, have flown across t
  
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• How palm trees stand tall in the face of a hurricane

  17-09-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  As Hurricane Irma battered the Caribbean, trees aerodynamically adapted to strong winds stood firmWhen Storm Aileen ripped across the UK last week the worst of the winds brought down trees, snapped off branches and shredded leaves, made worse because the trees were in full leaf and caught the wind like a sail. Compare that with the palm trees that stood up to Hurricane Irma’s immensely stronger winds, which would have torn British trees to shreds. The palm trees simply bent over at crazy a
  
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• Top Trump officials signal US could stay in Paris climate agreement

  17-09-2017 20:33 via theguardian.com
  Secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser HR McMaster both indicated the US is open to negotiations on staying in the accordSenior Trump administration officials on Sunday signalled a further softening of America’s resolve to leave the Paris climate accord, amid signs that the issue will be discussed at the United Nations general assembly in New York this week.
  Secretary of state Rex Tillerson and national security adviser HR McMaster both indicated that the US is open
  
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• How regulators could kill off Australia's water recycling industry

  17-09-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  A world-leading system in Sydney’s Central Park precinct helps residents reuse up to 97% of their water. But a pricing change threatens future schemesIn the basement of a Sydney housing development is the world’s largest water recycling plant in a residential building.Normal apartments put more than 90% of the water they consume back into the sewer. But thanks to the recycling plant, units in Central Park, built on the site of the old Carlton brewery close to the CBD, return just 3%.
  
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• Enough tiptoeing around. Let’s make this clear: coal kills people | Tim Hollo

  17-09-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Burning more coal, knowing what we know, is a deliberate act of arson. We must urgently come to grips with this fact and reconnect with nature and our communitiesCoal kills people. This isn’t even slightly scientifically controversial.
  From the mines to the trains to the climate disruption; from black lung to asthma, heat stress to hunger, fires to floods: coal is killing people in Australia and around the world right now.Yet we are once again having what passes for political debate about
  
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• Beware nuclear industry’s fake news on being emissions free | Letters

  17-09-2017 19:52 via theguardian.com
  David Blackburn says we need decentralised energy sources; David Lowry on nuclear not being zero-carbon technology; plus letters from David Hayes and Fred StarrI wholeheartedly agree with much of your editorial (14 September), as the economics of new nuclear is weaker than ever at a time when renewables are coming in cheaper year on year. You point out the crisis in the funding of renewables and we could not agree more. The UK desperately needs to reboot financial support for decentralised energ
  
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• Agriculture holds the key to unlocking Africa’s vast economic potential | Letters

  17-09-2017 19:51 via theguardian.com
  Anna Jones says that, through selling its cocoa cheaply, Africa is exporting its wealth overseas; while Sue Banford claims that the soya moratorium in the Amazon has done nothing to halt deforestationOnly the final paragraph in your article on cocoa farming causing deforestation in Ivory Coast (Forests pay price for world’s taste for cocoa, 14 September) mentioned the most fundamental thing – the farmer’s livelihood, or lack of it. The low value of his (or more likely her) crop
  
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• Press regulator censures Mail on Sunday for global warming claims

  17-09-2017 16:37 via theguardian.com
  Mail on Sunday criticised by Ipso for article claiming global warming data had been exaggerated to win Paris climate change agreementClaims in the Mail on Sunday that global warming data had been exaggerated in order to secure the Paris climate change agreement have been criticised by the UK’s press regulator.The Independent Press Standards Organisation censured the newspaper for publishing a story in early February that was flawed in key aspects. The news story suggested that data from th
  
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• Nancy Hatch Dupree obituary

  17-09-2017 16:35 via theguardian.com
  Conservationist and champion of Afghanistan’s people and culture and promoter of literacy in rural communitiesNancy Hatch Dupree, who has died aged 89, was an American archivist, writer and champion of Afghanistan’s culture and its people, who defied communists, fundamentalists, warlords and foreign invaders over nearly five decades in Kabul.Her most important legacy is an archive documenting some of the darkest periods of Afghan history: turbulent years of civil war and Taliban rule
  
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• Paris climate deal: US denies it will stay in accord

  17-09-2017 09:14 via bbc.co.uk
  Reports say the US will no longer withdraw from the Paris deal or will change its approach.
  
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• Two wheels good: a beginner's guide to commuting by bike

  17-09-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Keen to avoid overcrowded buses and tubes and arrive to work brimming with endorphins? Here are some tips to cycling to work, safely and stylishlyHave you ever noticed how cheerful your cycling colleagues are when they arrive at work in the morning? That’s because their commute is quicker and cheaper, they are full of endorphins from the exercise, and they have avoided being crammed on to hot, overcrowded public transport.
  The good news is it’s actually very easy to follow their lead
  
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• The 'miracle pill': how cycling could save the NHS

  17-09-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Cycling can make people healthy and live longer, and cut public health costs, so why can’t it be prescribed to the nation?Imagine if a team of scientists devised a drug which massively reduced people’s chances of developing cancer or heart disease, cutting their overall likelihood of dying early by 40%. This would be front page news worldwide, a Nobel prize as good as in the post.That drug is already here, albeit administered in a slightly different way: it’s called cycling to
  
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• The eco guide to ancient grains

  17-09-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Selective breeding gives the highest yield, but potentially at a price. It’s time to go back to our rootsIf you find the whole business of organic too tame, there’s always landrace crops, which are positively subversive. Landrace crop varieties (sometimes known as folk crops) are ancient versions of the standardised crops we rely on today. Genetically variable, these biodiverse cultivars are allowed to grow at will and to cross pollinate. Farmers collect the seeds from successful cro
  
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• Outwitted

  17-09-2017 01:39 via bbc.co.uk
  How tiny creatures with small brains outwit us so easily.
  
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• Foxhounds will always kill foxes when hunts allow them | Letters

  17-09-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  National Trust could risk prosecution if it crushes motion to ban trail huntingJoss Hanbury, master of the Quorn hunt, says foxhounds have “been bred for generations to hunt live prey”, giving this as a reason why hunts keep killing foxes, implying that it’s just one of those unfortunate things that can’t be helped (News).If someone’s bull terriers savaged a bull, it would be no good the owner pleading that the breed had been bred for bull-baiting and therefore ther
  
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• White House denies US is planning to remain in Paris climate accord

  17-09-2017 00:23 via theguardian.com
  Trump administration dismisses claim by EU official that US has offered to re-engage with the deal The White House has denied reports that it planned to stay in the Paris climate agreement, saying its position on leaving was unchanged, and that it would only stay in if it got more “favourable” terms.The Trump administration was forced to make a statement on Saturday after reports emerged as ministers from more than 30 countries held talks in Montreal this weekend preparing for the up
  
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