Environment news

• Warm Northwest waters draw spawning fish north

  26-09-2017 22:18 via feedproxy.google.com
  Unusually warm ocean conditions off the Pacific Northwest in the last few years led anchovies, sardines and hake to begin spawning in Northwest waters much earlier in the year and, for anchovy, longer than biologists have ever recorded before, new research has found.
  
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• Penguin-mounted video captures gastronomic close encounters of the gelatinous kind

  26-09-2017 22:18 via feedproxy.google.com
  Penguins caught on camera eating jellyfish
  
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• I'm part of the world's oldest living culture, but could I kill a zombie with a boomerang? | Tyson Yunkaporta

  26-09-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  The apocalypse has become a running theme in First Nations art and media. So are Indigenous people ready for the end of the world?The Doomsday Clock, used by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists for the last 70 years to indicate the danger level of global nuclear annihilation, was recently moved to “two-and-a-half minutes to midnight”. On an Aboriginal timeline, we might recall much older lore about uranium, which warns of a monster that must be left in the ground or it will destroy the
  
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• David Suzuki: Australia's 'sickening' threat to marine reserves undermines global protection

  26-09-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Conservationist and 1,461 other scientists release statement describing Australia’s oceans as a ‘global asset’ that must be protectedGrowing global momentum to protect the world’s oceans from overfishing could be undermined by Australia, warns renowned conservationist David Suzuki and more than 1,461 other scientists.Australia is currently considering the world’s biggest downgrading of a protected area with a reduction in the size of its network of marine reserves.
  
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• $2.5bn on an unnecessary power station? That's good old pork barrelling | Tristan Edis

  26-09-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  A commitment to build a coal-fired power station in Townsville makes no environmental or economic sense. But it might just make political senseThe Queensland Liberal-National Party (LNP) are promising that if they are elected to government they’ll build a new coal power station in northern Queensland. And just this week Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that if Queenslanders elected the LNP at the next state election, all Australian taxpayers would help fund it.It’s important
  
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• In search of time lost reading Proust twice | Brief letters

  26-09-2017 19:44 via theguardian.com
  Rereading Proust | Corpses’ underwear | Passing on clutter | Birds at meetings | Split infinitives | The far rightReading Remembrance of Things Past all the way through is not enough to appreciate Proust’s masterpiece (Letters, 26 September). You need to read it a second time in the light of the events in the last volume, particularly the account of the meal at which characters from the previous eleven volumes reappear. The second reading is an entirely different experience, knowing
  
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• UK's first subsidy-free solar opened in Bedfordshire

  26-09-2017 18:43 via bbc.co.uk
  The solar farm will generate enough electricity for about 2,500 homes, its backers said.
  
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• The final straw: how to follow Wetherspoon’s and ditch the plastic

  26-09-2017 18:11 via theguardian.com
  The pub chain’s decision to do away with straws is expected to stop 70m of them ending up in landfill or the sea every year. Here are some other plastics we perhaps could do withoutDrinkers heading to Wetherspoon’s for a tipple will have to do without plastic straws from the end of this year as the cheap (and occasionally cheerful) high-street pub chain does its bit to tackle the problem of global plastic pollution.Following on the heels of companies such as Tesco, which last mo
  
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• Brazil backtracks on plan to open up Amazon forest to mining

  26-09-2017 16:04 via theguardian.com
  Campaigners welcome U-turn on Renca reserve but threat still exists as Brazil president has close ties to mining industryAmazon conservation groups have hailed a victory as the Brazilian government announced a U-turn on plans to open up swaths of the the world’s biggest forest to mining corporations.President Michel Temer had sparked outrage in August when he announced a decree to abolish the Renca reserve, an area of 17,800 square miles – roughly the size of Switzerland – that
  
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• Why plastic straws could disappear from a pub near you

  26-09-2017 15:26 via bbc.co.uk
  As pub chain Wetherspoons phases out plastic straws for waste reasons, is it time we scrapped them?
  
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• Labour's Clive Lewis accuses nuclear unions of being 'voice for big business'

  26-09-2017 15:15 via theguardian.com
  Corbyn ally says unions are failing to speak up for renewable energy because they do not have members in that sectorAn ally of Jeremy Corbyn has claimed trade unions that are involved in the nuclear industry have become “a voice for big business” because they have been weakened in other sectors.
  Clive Lewis, the former shadow secretary of state for energy, singled out GMB for being too close to the nuclear lobby and said it was not speaking up for renewable energy because it did not
  
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• A giant swing and an imminent eruption: Tuesday's best photographs

  26-09-2017 14:15 via theguardian.com
  A selection of the best photographs from around the world including a giant swing in Nepal and an imminent eruption in Bali Continue reading...
  
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• How banana skins turned on the lights in Lagos ... and then turned them off again

  26-09-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  For a while it looked as if a plan to turn fruit waste into electricity might bring light for a giant Nigerian market – but then, like so many other power plans, nothing happened. When will renewables really come on line? Two kids run across the road shouting, “Thief! Thief!” as a big rat races away into a nearby hole for refuge. It has rained and the drains are clogged with waste: the water pools on the road and fills the potholes along the thoroughfare leading to Lagos’
  
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• Wind power is now cheaper than nuclear – the energy revolution is happening | John Sauven

  26-09-2017 11:50 via theguardian.com
  Far-sighted government policy means the cost of offshore wind energy has halved. The benefits in terms of climate change and UK jobs will be enormousIn March I went to see Henrik Poulsen, the boss of Dong Energy, in Copenhagen. Never heard of him or his company? You are not alone, but the chances are he is keeping your lights on. The largely unknown story of his company is worth telling because it is genuinely revolutionary.Dong stands for Danish oil and natural gas. It was, like Shell and BP, i
  
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• National park ban saved 2m plastic bottles – and still Trump reversed it

  26-09-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Trump administration reversed ban in August despite environmental protestActivists say plastic is biggest threat to environment after climate changeA ban on bottled water in 23 national parks prevented up to 2m plastic bottles from being used and discarded every year, a US national park service study found. That is equivalent to up to 326 barrels of oil worth of emissions, 419 cubic yards of landfill space and 111,743lb of plastic, according to the May study.Despite that, the Trump administratio
  
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• Antarctic sea ice levels hit record low, but experts are not sure why

  26-09-2017 10:42 via theguardian.com
  Unpredictable nature of Antarctic sea ice levels the focus at conference of meteorology experts in Australia this weekSea ice levels in Antarctica dropped to a record low this year, but experts say there is not a clear link to climate change.More than 60 meteorologists and scientists from around the world are holding a week-long meeting in Hobart, Tasmania, to better understand sea ice changes on the frozen continent. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I don’t want to imagine a world without giant snakes in it’

  26-09-2017 09:47 via theguardian.com
  Neglected by most conservation groups, the Burmese python has a champion in Shariar Caesar Rahman.Here’s a fact that illuminates many of the realities of global conservation: we know more about Burmese pythons in Florida – where they are a destructive invader – than about their lives in their natural range in Southeast Asia, where their numbers are plummeting and their very long-term survival may be up in the air. Armed with a shoestring budget and a love for mega-snakes, Shari
  
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• Google Maps must improve if it wants cyclists to use it

  26-09-2017 08:15 via theguardian.com
  Cyclists don’t just want the fastest route they want the safest or quietest – and information on bike parking would be a bonusWe all have different ways to navigate when lost – whether asking a stranger for help, consulting an old-school map or simply following our nose.But on a bike, the stakes are higher. One wrong turn and you’re in gridlocked traffic, with two lanes between your bike and the nearest pavement. In this moment, cyclists can be divided into two types: the
  
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• Botanic gardens 'best hope' for saving endangered plants

  26-09-2017 08:01 via bbc.co.uk
  The world's botanic gardens contain a third of all known plants and help protect 40% of endangered ones.
  
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• Sixth mass extinction of wildlife also threatens global food supplies

  26-09-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Plant and animal species that are the foundation of our food supplies are as endangered as wildlife but get almost no attention, a new report revealsComment: Chips, chocolate and coffee – our food crops face mass extinction too
  The sixth mass extinction of global wildlife already under way is seriously threatening the world’s food supplies, according to experts.“Huge proportions of the plant and animal species that form the foundation of our food supply are just as endangered [
  
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• Chips, chocolate and coffee – our food crops face mass extinction too

  26-09-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  It’s not just animals, many seed crops are also endangered. So why is agrobiodiversity so overlooked? This valuable source of affordable, nutritious food could disappear if we don’t act• Read more: Sixth mass extinction of wildlife also threatens global food suppliesA “sixth mass extinction” is already under way, scientists are now warning us. Species such as the Bengal tiger and blue whale are vanishing at an alarming rate, and mournful eulogies are being written on
  
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• This island is not for sale: how Eigg fought back

  26-09-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Small islands have always been objects of desire for a certain kind of man ambitious to rule his own tiny nation. One Hebridean isle asserted its independence, but can its way of life survive? By Patrick Barkham“It’s the difference between black-and-white TV and colour,” said Brian Greene. “That’s what it was like after the revolution.” Greene was giving me a lift in his dilapidated Peugeot along Eigg’s only road, waving at every passerby. It was the kin
  
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• Country diary: life and loss of a riverside meadow

  26-09-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Sandy, Bedfordshire Once full of lambs, today the field is a thigh-high forest of vegetation and saplings rise above the jungle Down by the river is a place that five springs ago was a field full of lambs. I had spent a couple of years there acting as “lookerer” (or volunteer shepherd) for a flock of Southdown sheep, and on one blossom-filled morning of cuckoo flowers and lesser celandines, I helped the shepherd with a difficult birth. Related: Country diary: Sandy, Bedfordshire: The
  
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• Australia joins UK space radar mission

  26-09-2017 06:19 via bbc.co.uk
  Australia is to be a launch partner on the UK's innovative new small radar satellite, NovaSAR.
  
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• Malcolm Turnbull's request for end to gas 'moratoriums' rejected by states

  26-09-2017 02:18 via theguardian.com
  NSW and Victoria argue fracking policies cannot be easily changed after PMsays they are putting energy security at riskState governments have rejected Malcolm Turnbull’s request to lift restrictions on new gas production, arguing their fracking policies cannot be so easily changed.Turnbull has written to the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and the Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, asking them to lift their “blanket
  
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• This summer was greenest ever for energy, says National Grid

  26-09-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Carbon emissions pushed to lowest level yet as first subsidy-free large solar power project opens in the UKThe UK has set a new landmark for clean energy after the National Grid announced that the electricity powering the UK’s homes and businesses this summer was the greenest ever.The record comes as the first subsidy-free large solar power project opens in the UK, in what the government described as a significant moment for the energy sector. Continue reading...
  
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• Seaweed-fueled cars? Maybe one day, with help of new tech

  26-09-2017 00:51 via feedproxy.google.com
  Cars and trucks might one day run on biofuel made from seaweed with the help of two technologies being developed at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
  
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• Filter may be a match for fracking water

  26-09-2017 00:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new filter produced by Rice University scientists has proven able to remove more than 90 percent of hydrocarbons, bacteria and particulates from contaminated water produced by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations at shale oil and gas wells.
  
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• Scientists monitor Silicon Valley's underground water reserves — from space

  26-09-2017 00:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists have used satellite data to monitor underground water reserves in California’s Silicon Valley, discovering that water levels rebounded quickly after a severe drought that lasted from 2012-15.
  
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