Environment news

• NASA Sees Maria Intensify into a Major Hurricane

  18-09-2017 23:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  NASA and NOAA satellites have provided data on Maria as it strengthened into a major Hurricane headed toward the Leeward Islands. NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at Maria that showed cooling cloud top temperatures and NOAA's GOES satellite provided an animation of imagery that showed the storm developing and strengthening. The GPM satellite found "Hot" towering clouds that indicated strengthening was occurring before Maria became a major hurricane.
  
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• Q&A: panellists spar over coal as energy debate dominates

  18-09-2017 23:38 via theguardian.com
  Doctor says respiratory and cardiovascular implications of coal should be top of Australia’s energy debate and warns Adani mine threatens health of millions The health implications of coal-fired power should be a main concern in Australia’s debate over energy generation, doctors have argued. Speaking on the ABC’s Q&A program, the chair of Doctors for the Environment New South Wales, Dr John Van Der Kallen, asked panellists why health was not a primary consideration in the d
  
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• 5,000 deaths annually from dieselgate in Europe

  18-09-2017 23:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  Excess emissions from diesel cars cause about 5,000 premature deaths annually across Europe, a new study shows.Since the late 1990s the share of diesel cars in the EU has risen to around 50% in the fleet, with important variations between countries. There are now more than 100 million diesel cars running in Europe, twice as many as in the rest of the world together. Their NOxemissions are however 4 to 7 times higher on the road than in official certification tests. Modern engine controls have be
  
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• Solar-to-Fuel System Recycles CO2 to Make Ethanol and Ethylene

  18-09-2017 22:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Berkeley Lab advance is first demonstration of efficient, light-powered production of fuel via artificial photosynthesis.
  
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• Copper Catalyst Yields High Efficiency CO2-to-Fuels Conversion

  18-09-2017 22:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Berkeley Lab scientists discover critical role of nanoparticle transformation
  
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• An effective way to eliminate atrazine and its by-products in surface water

  18-09-2017 22:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Atrazine, widely used as a weedkiller, is known to have harmful effects on aquatic wildlife and presents a risk to human health by altering the action of certain hormones.
  
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• 10 national monuments at risk under Trump's administration

  18-09-2017 22:22 via theguardian.com
  The US interior secretary has identified a total of 10 national monuments to reshape or repurpose in order to allow for logging, mining and grazingMore national monuments should be opened for exploitation, Zinke says
  A total of 10 US national monuments are in the Trump administration’s sights to be either resized or repurposed, in order to allow activities such as mining, logging and grazing within their borders. Environmental groups have vowed legal action to stymie any alterations to the
  
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• Cereals that defy the drought

  18-09-2017 22:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  Genome decoding provides information about dry and heat-resistant cereals
  
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• Horsey seal injured by flying ring 'making recovery'

  18-09-2017 21:13 via bbc.co.uk
  Volunteers came to the aid of a seal after its neck was trapped within a plastic flying ring.
  
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• More national monuments should be opened for exploitation, Zinke says

  18-09-2017 20:37 via theguardian.com
  In leaked memo, Trump interior secretary recommends 10 protected areas be modified to allow for ‘traditional uses’ such as mining, logging and huntingThe Trump administration faces a fresh legal battle from environmental groups after the interior department recommended that 10 national monuments be resized or opened up to mining, logging and other industrial purposes.Related: The Trump administration's national monuments 'review' is a sham | Brian CalvertContinue reading...
  
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• Australia's record-breaking winter beats average highs by 2C, Climate Council says

  18-09-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  ‘Less of an opportunity to clear the mind,’ is the verdict from Bidyadanga, where winter highs of 33C were replaced by 36C as records tumbled across the countryIt’s always hot in Bidyadanga but a few degrees can make a big difference in the remote Aboriginal community, about 190 kilometres south of Broome in West Australia.“It’s always hot – it’s the desert – but the difference between 33 degrees and 36 degrees can be quite oppressive,” said
  
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• Nuclear must be part of the low-carbon mix | Letters

  18-09-2017 19:48 via theguardian.com
  Agneta Rising of the World Nuclear Association and Dr Alexander Bannara reply to criticisms of the industryRe David Lowry’s criticisms of nuclear energy (Letters, 17 September), it is true that nuclear plants stop generating temporarily for maintenance and repair, but the same is true for most other forms of electricity generation. However, on average these outages represent a much smaller quantity of lost generation compared to the day-to-day intermittency of wind or solar. Nuclear plants
  
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• How to win the battle against ‘sanitary’ waste | Letters

  18-09-2017 19:48 via theguardian.com
  We can’t address this until we’re prepared to use the word ‘tampon’ in discussing the problem, says Martha SilcottPerhaps it is no coincidence that the record-breaking fatberg was discovered during a week of coordinated nationwide beach clean-ups, run by volunteers (Monster fatberg found inside London sewer, 13 September). Fatbergs like the “monster” found in Whitechapel could easily be avoided, but it’s time for an honest discussion about the causes. It
  
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• MP welcomes 'swift' BBC rebuke of presenter over climate sceptic tweet

  18-09-2017 19:28 via theguardian.com
  Adam Rutherford may have compromised BBC’s impartiality by criticising Labour MP Graham Stringer, a climate change sceptic, standards team saysThe BBC has reprimanded the presenter of Radio 4’s Inside Science after he called on his Twitter followers to write to their local MPs about the reappointment of Graham Stringer, a climate change sceptic, to a parliamentary committee.Adam Rutherford “potentially compromised the BBC’s impartiality” by publicly criticising the
  
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• Ministers launch taskforce to help boost green business investment

  18-09-2017 19:28 via theguardian.com
  Green Finance Taskforce, which will be led by investors and leading figures from the City, will find ways to aid the UK’s shift to a low-carbon economyA new group led by investors and leading figures from the City of London has been brought together by the government to draw up measures to encourage “green finance” in the UK.The Green Finance Taskforce will have six months to come up with proposals on how to increase investment in the low-carbon economy and will work with banks
  
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• Ministers launch group to help boost green business investment

  18-09-2017 19:28 via theguardian.com
  Green Finance Taskforce to assist UK’s shift to low-carbon economy and be led by investors and leading figures from City A new group led by investors and leading figures from the City of London has been brought together by the government to draw up measures to encourage “green finance” in the UK.The Green Finance Taskforce will have six months to come up with proposals on how to increase investment in the low-carbon economy and will work with banks and other financial instituti
  
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• Altitude Training for Cancer-Fighting Cells

  18-09-2017 18:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  Mountain climbers and endurance athletes are not the only ones to benefit from altitude training – that is, learning to perform well under low-oxygen conditions. It turns out that cancer-fighting cells of the immune system can also improve their performance through a cellular version of such a regimen. In a study published in Cell Reports, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers have shown that immune system’s killer T cells destroy cancerous tumors much more effecti
  
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• Sheep Gene Study May Help Breed Healthier Animals

  18-09-2017 18:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  Fresh insights into the genetic code of sheep could aid breeding programmes to improve their health and productivity.
  
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• Developing Roads That Can Generate Power From Passing Traffic

  18-09-2017 18:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers are looking at advanced materials for roads and pavements that could generate electricity from passing traffic.
  
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• Report Suggests Love of the Seas Could be the Key for Plastic Pollution Solution

  18-09-2017 18:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tapping into the public’s passion for the ocean environment could be the key to reducing the threats posed to it by plastic pollution, a new report suggests.
  
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• Changes in Earth's Crust Caused Oxygen to Fill the Atmosphere

  18-09-2017 18:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists have long wondered how Earth’s atmosphere filled with oxygen. UBC geologist Matthijs Smit and research partner Klaus Mezger may have found the answer in continental rocks that are billions of years old.
  
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• Urgent Emission Reductions Needed to Achieve 1.5°C Warming Limit

  18-09-2017 18:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  Significant emission reductions are required if we are to achieve one of the key goals of the Paris Agreement, and limit the increase in global average temperatures to 1.5°C; a new Oxford University partnership warns.
  
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• NASA Sees Talim Now Extra-Tropical

  18-09-2017 18:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tropical Storm Talim made landfall on Kyushu, the large island of southwestern Japan, where it weakened to an extra-tropical storm. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured an image of the storm after its transition.
  
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• Changes in Nonextreme Precipitation May Have Not-So-Subtle Consequences

  18-09-2017 18:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Major floods and droughts receive a lot of attention in the context of climate change, but University of Illinois researchers analyzed over five decades of precipitation data from North America to find that changes in nonextreme precipitation are more significant than previously realized and larger than those in extreme precipitation. These changes can have a strong effect on ecosystems, agriculture, infrastructure design and resource management, and point to a need to examine precipitation in a
  
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• They erased nature from our dictionaries. The fightback starts here | Patrick Barkham

  18-09-2017 17:56 via theguardian.com
  Conkers, along with wrens and adders, were deemed outdated. What were the editors thinking?It is hazardous to stand in my garden. Thwack. Thud. Every five minutes, the tree above slings a conker to the ground as if by catapult.Some open their spiny cases on impact. Others can be gently crushed to reveal their gleaming treasure: cool to touch, encased in cream memory foam, and decorated with whorls that resemble a chestnut map of the world. Continue reading...
  
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• Trump adviser tells UN the US is not looking to stay in Paris climate deal

  18-09-2017 17:39 via theguardian.com
  Gary Cohn confirmed the US intends to withdraw from the agreement without a renegotiation, but declined to provide detailsPresident Donald Trump’s top economic adviser said at the United Nations on Monday the US has not changed its plans to withdraw from the Paris climate pact without a renegotiation favorable to Washington, a step for which there is little appetite in the international community.Related: Top Trump officials signal US could stay in Paris climate agreementContinue reading..
  
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• Ambitious 1.5C Paris climate target is still possible, new analysis shows

  18-09-2017 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Goal to limit warming to 1.5C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change was seen as unreachable, but updated research suggests it could be met if strong action is takenThe highly ambitious aim of limiting global warming to less than 1.5C remains in reach, a new scientific analysis shows. The 1.5C target was set as an aspiration by the global Paris climate change deal in 2015 to limit the damage wreaked by extreme weather and sea level rise. Continue reading...
  
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• In a Stunning Turnaround, Britain Moves to End the Burning of Coal

  18-09-2017 16:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  Bigger than any medieval castle, with its 12 giant white cooling towers gleaming in the sun, the Drax Power Station dominates the horizon for tens of miles across the flat lands of eastern England. For four decades, it has been one of the world’s largest coal power plants, often generating a tenth of the U.K.’s electricity. It has been the lodestar for the final phase of Britain’s 250-year-long love affair with coal – the fuel that built the country’s empire and ind
  
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• Octlantis: the underwater city built by octopuses

  18-09-2017 15:53 via theguardian.com
  The discovery of aquatic architecture has led scientists to compare the behaviour of cephalopods with humans – but octopus city life is no utopiaIf animals are our other, there is nothing quite so other as the octopus. It is the alien with whom we share our planet, a coeval evolutionary life form whose slithery slipperiness and more than the requisite number of limbs (each of which contains its own “brain”) symbolise the dark mystery and fear of the deep.Now comes news that oct
  
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• Small-scale fisheries have big impact on oceans

  18-09-2017 14:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new UBC study has found that small-scale fisheries may have a much larger impact on ocean ecosystems than previously thought, due to a lack of data on their development over time.“We found that the influence from small-scale fisheries is far from small,” said Jennifer Selgrath, lead author who completed the research as a PhD student with UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and Project Seahorse. “In our case study in the Philippines, we found that the fisheries
  
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• Women of childbearing age around world suffering toxic levels of mercury

  18-09-2017 12:53 via theguardian.com
  Study finds excessive levels of the metal, which can seriously harm unborn children, in women from Alaska to Indonesia, due to gold mining, industrial pollution and fish-rich dietsWomen of childbearing age from around the world have been found to have high levels of mercury, a potent neurotoxin which can seriously harm unborn children.The new study, the largest to date, covered 25 of the countries with the highest risk and found excessive levels of the toxic metal in women from Alaska to Chile a
  
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• We need to make democracy work in the fight to save the planet | AC Grayling

  18-09-2017 12:16 via theguardian.com
  For centuries, humans have championed the democratic political system. But can it facilitate the radical change needed to stop the potentially annihilating effects of climate change?Although individual action to protect the environment – consuming less, recycling more, reducing one’s carbon footprint – might be a contribution if enough people did it, the battle to minimise human-induced climate change has to be a worldwide endeavour among cooperating states. The outcome of the
  
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• Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too | Dana Nuccitelli

  18-09-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Climate models have an even better track record than the weather models that saved lives in Texas and Florida
  The impacts of hurricanes Harvey and Irma were blunted because we saw them coming. Weather models accurately predicted the hurricane paths and anticipated their extreme intensities days in advance. This allowed millions of Floridians to evacuate the state, sparing countless lives.Some contrarians have tried to downplay the rising costs of landfalling hurricanes by claiming they’re
  
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• The man trying to save bats' lives

  18-09-2017 10:04 via bbc.co.uk
  Meet Dr Matt Zeale who is leading a team of conservationists tracking the rare barbastrelle bat.
  
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• Alan Finkel urges Turnbull to adopt clean energy target before states act

  18-09-2017 09:20 via theguardian.com
  Chief scientist says conflicting targets at different levels of government could strangle investment and worsen power supply problemsAlan Finkel has urged the Australian government to swiftly commit to the final recommendation of his energy review, warning the longer that commitment takes, the more likely states and territories are to set up conflicting emissions reduction schemes.Speaking at the Melbourne economic forum at Victoria university on Monday, Finkel, Australia’s chief scientist
  
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• Scotland’s Sphinx snow patch is in its throes – in pictures

  18-09-2017 08:15 via theguardian.com
  The Sphinx is the closest Britain comes to having a glacier. It has disappeared just six times in the last 300 years, but this year it is almost gone. Murdo MacLeod joins snow expert Iain Cameron to study the state of Scotland’s permanent snow “It’s a very sorry sight,” says Iain Cameron. It is late August and we are standing in front of Scotland’s very own Sphinx. It never had claws, paws, nor a mysterious countenance, but if it once had they would have melted away
  
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• Haaf netting on the Lune: 'Fighting a big fish really gets the adrenaline going'

  18-09-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Sunderland Point, Lancaster At the river’s edge, retinues of curlew, lapwing and redshank assembled and lifted again, landing in each other’s wakeEven as Margaret Owen pulled on her fishing “yallers”, we knew there was little chance of a salmon. I had been waiting for weeks to see Margaret in action, but the salmon simply haven’t returned to the river Lune this year, and the season was about to end. Continue reading...
  
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• Rhino horn smuggled as jewellery

  18-09-2017 04:48 via bbc.co.uk
  Rhino horn is being processed into bangles, beads and bracelets, a charity's investigation reveals.
  
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• CSIRO breeds spotted handfish to save species from extinction

  18-09-2017 04:19 via theguardian.com
  Fish, which is endemic to Tasmania, was the first Australian marine animal to be listed as critically endangeredScientists have begun a captive breeding program for the spotted handfish, 11 years after it became the first Australian marine animal to be listed as critically endangered.Endemic to Tasmania, the spotted handfish or Brachionichthys hirsutus looks like a tadpole in the late stages of development, with a fin atop its head to lure unsuspecting prey and the sour expression of a British b
  
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• Most Britons 'dislike prospect of living near mini nuclear station'

  18-09-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Survey finds 62% would not be happy living near the small modular reactors backed by government and industryMost Britons would not be happy living near the mini nuclear power stations that Rolls-Royce and several other international companies want to build in the UK, a survey has found.The government has promised the developers of small modular reactors a slice of a £250m funding pot in a race to position the UK as the place where the first generation of the power stations should be built.
  
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