Environment news

• DOE Should Take Steps Toward Facilitating Energy Development on Its Public Lands

  28-09-2017 23:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  The U.S. Department of Energy should place a higher priority on developing an accurate and actionable inventory of agency-owned or managed properties that can be leased or sold for energy development, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report recommends a sequence of activities DOE can follow to manage its lands and identify properties that have promising profiles for energy resource development.
  
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• Spacewatch: twin research satellites head for burn-out

  28-09-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment has revealed ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica and mapped water levels inthe Yangtze river A pair of German-American Earth observation satellites are due to be retired this November and put on trajectories that will see them burn up in Earth’s atmosphere in 2018.The two Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) satellites were launched on 17 March 2002 from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in north-west Russia. They fly in formation, about 140 miles
  
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• Non-Native Species From Japanese Tsunami Aided by Unlikely Partner: Plastics

  28-09-2017 22:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new study appearing this week in Science reports the discovery of a startling new role of plastic marine debris -- the transport of non-native species in the world's oceans.
  
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• New Approach to Measuring Changes in Forest Carbon Density has Shown That the Tropics Now Emit More Carbon Than They Capture

  28-09-2017 22:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  A revolutionary new approach to measuring changes in forest carbon density has helped WHRC scientists determine that the tropics now emit more carbon than they capture, countering their role as a net carbon “sink.”
  
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• To Improve Melanoma Treatment, Researchers Look to Block Deletion of 'Self-Reactive' Immune Cells

  28-09-2017 21:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center are using what they know about a rare, inherited autoimmune disease to turn the body’s defenses against melanoma.  
  
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• Bed Bugs Attracted to Dirty Laundry, Study Finds

  28-09-2017 21:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  Bed bugs are huge problem for hotel and homeowners in some of the world’s busiest citiesInsects finding their way into clothing and luggage is one possible cause of global spread of bed bugs
  
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• Smart Molecules Trigger White Blood Cells to Become Better Cancer-Eating Machines

  28-09-2017 21:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  A team of researchers has engineered smart protein molecules that can reprogram white blood cells to ignore a self-defense signaling mechanism that cancer cells use to survive and spread in the body. Researchers say the advance could lead to a new method of re-engineering immune cells to fight cancer and infectious diseases. The team successfully tested this method in a live cell culture system.
  
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• Generating Terahertz Radiation from Water Makes 'The Impossible, Possible'

  28-09-2017 21:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  Xi-Cheng Zhang has worked for nearly a decade to solve a scientific puzzle that many in the research community believed to be impossible: producing terahertz waves—a form of electromagnetic radiation in the far infrared frequency range—from liquid water.
  
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• A new shock doctrine: in a world of crisis, morality can still win | Naomi Klein

  28-09-2017 20:39 via theguardian.com
  Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders and Podemos in Spain have shown that a bold and decent strategy can be a successful one. That truth should embolden the leftWe live in frightening times. From heads of state tweeting threats of nuclear annihilation, to whole regions rocked by climate chaos, to thousands of migrants drowning off the coasts of Europe, to openly racist parties gaining ground: it feels like there are a lot of reasons to be pessimistic about our collective future.To take one example, the
  
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• Biologists identify possible new strategy for halting brain tumors

  28-09-2017 20:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  MIT biologists have discovered a fundamental mechanism that helps brain tumors called glioblastomas grow aggressively. After blocking this mechanism in mice, the researchers were able to halt tumor growth.
  
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• Olive mill wastewater transformed: From pollutant to bio-fertilizer, biofuel

  28-09-2017 20:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  Olive oil has long been a popular kitchen staple. Yet producing the oil creates a vast stream of wastewater that can foul waterways, reduce soil fertility and trigger extensive damage to nearby ecosystems. Now in a study appearing in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, scientists report on the development of an environmentally friendly process that could transform this pollutant into “green” biofuel, bio-fertilizer and safe water for use in agricultural irrigation.
  
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• Alarm as study reveals world’s tropical forests are huge carbon emission source

  28-09-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Forests globally are so degraded that instead of absorbing emissions they now release more carbon annually than all the traffic in the US, say researchersThe world’s tropical forests are so degraded they have become a source rather than a sink of carbon emissions, according to a new study that highlights the urgent need to protect and restore the Amazon and similar regions.Researchers found that forest areas in South America, Africa and Asia – which have until recently played a key r
  
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• Europe plans Sentinel satellite expansion

  28-09-2017 18:58 via bbc.co.uk
  The process begins of scoping new spacecraft for the Sentinel Earth observation network.
  
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• Will this rover succeed in exploring the Moon's surface?

  28-09-2017 18:23 via bbc.co.uk
  A team in Bangalore has entered the Google Lunar X Prize to land a rover on the Moon.
  
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• Sussex chemical haze: MPs criticise decision to curtail investigation

  28-09-2017 16:21 via theguardian.com
  Concern grows that cause of toxic plume last month, which left 150 people seeking hospital treatment, may never be knownMPs have criticised a decision to wind down an investigation into the mysterious chemical haze that caused Sussex beaches to be evacuated and left dozens of people reporting sore eyes and breathing problems.Victims of the incident, after which 150 people sought hospital treatment, expressed alarm that they may never know the cause of the toxic plume that gave them sore throats
  
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• Monsanto banned from European parliament

  28-09-2017 16:15 via theguardian.com
  MEPs withdraw parliamentary access after the firm shunned a hearing into allegations that it unduly influenced studies into the safety of glyphosate used in its RoundUp weedkillerMonsanto lobbyists have been banned from entering the European parliament after the multinational refused to attend a parliamentary hearing into allegations of regulatory interference.It is the first time MEPs have used new rules to withdraw parliamentary access for firms that ignore a summons to attend parliamentary in
  
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• Scientists show molecular basis for ants acting as bodyguards to plants

  28-09-2017 15:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  Though you might not think of ants as formidable bodyguards, some do an impressive job protecting plants from enemies. Now, scientists at the University of Toronto have determined what makes some better bodyguards than others.Examining the relationship between the Amazon rainforest plant Cordia nodosa in Peru and the Amazonian ant Allomerus octoarticulatus, they found the degree to which the ants express two genes significantly impacts the amount of protection they provide to their hosts.
  
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• Embryo: Precise 'chemical surgery' performed

  28-09-2017 15:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Sir Paul Nurse says this kind of technique could be done in the UK.
  
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• Dirty laundry a powerful magnet for bedbugs, study finds

  28-09-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  To sleep tight and dodge the bedbug’s bite, pack away worn clothes to avoid spreading the insects, which are attracted to human scent, travellers advisedAfter a long day of sightseeing in a foreign city, you might be tempted to kick off your socks, sling your sweaty T-shirt across your hotel room room and flop down on the bed. Think again.Dirty laundry acts as a powerful magnet for bedbugs, a study published in the journal Scientific Reports has found. Its authors have warned that a failur
  
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• 'Virtual flu'

  28-09-2017 14:45 via bbc.co.uk
  A major citizen science project will spread virtual flu with the aim of understanding how to stop the real thing.
  
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• A living goddess and a giant plant pot: Thursday's photo highlights

  28-09-2017 13:57 via theguardian.com
  The best photographs from around the world including a living goddess in Nepal and demonic pumpkins in Chennai, India Continue reading...
  
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• New species of giant rat discovered on the Solomon Islands

  28-09-2017 12:50 via bbc.co.uk
  Four times larger than regular rodents, a large, tree-dwelling rat has been found in the Pacific.
  
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• Satellite eye on Earth: August 2017 – in pictures

  28-09-2017 12:14 via theguardian.com
  Greenland wildfires, deforestation and tropical storm Harvey are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last monthTropical storm Harvey in the Gulf of Mexico on 24 August. This geocolor image appears differently depending on whether it is day (right of the image) or night (left).Continue reading...
  
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• Climate and energy are becoming focal points in state political races | John Abraham

  28-09-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  The latest example, Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Otto has a strong clean energy proposal
  As soon as Donald Trump won the presidential election, people in the US and around the world knew it was terrible news for the environment. Not wanting to believe that he would try to follow through on our worst fears, we held out hope.Those hopes for a sane US federal government were misplaced. But they are replaced by a new hope – an emerging climate leadership at the state level and a c
  
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• Leuser ecosystem: one of most biodiverse places on Earth under threat – in pictures

  28-09-2017 10:54 via theguardian.com
  The Leuser ecosystem spans 2.6m hectares into the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra. It’s the only place in the world where tigers, orangutans, rhinos and elephants coexist in the wild. But it’s under threat from agricultural industries, including palm oil‘The last place on Earth’: how Sumatra’s rainforest is being cleared for palm oilContinue reading...
  
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• 'The last place on Earth': how Sumatra's rainforest is being cleared for palm oil

  28-09-2017 10:47 via theguardian.com
  Sumatra’s Leuser ecosystem is the only place where orangutans, rhinos, tigers and elephants coexist. But palm oil companies continue to clear it, claims NGOLeuser ecosystem: one of most biodiverse places on Earth under threat – in picturesA palm oil company is continuing to clear forest in a fast-diminishing elephant habitat in Indonesia’s Leuser ecosystem despite being the subject of two reports into illegal deforestation, according to a prominent environmental organisation.Th
  
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• Michael Gove seeking way to end 'bonkers' felling of Sheffield trees

  28-09-2017 10:39 via theguardian.com
  Environment secretary hopes for ‘decent conversation’ with council, but says he is also exploring ‘legal or policy avenues’Michael Gove has asked government officials to explore ways of stopping the “bonkers” felling of thousands of roadside trees in Sheffield.The environment secretary said the government would examine “legal or policy avenues” to end the scheme that has triggered months of protests by residents. Continue reading...
  
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• European countries spend billions a year on fossil fuel subsidies, survey shows

  28-09-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Survey of 11 European countries reveals huge government subsidies to the transport sector and for fuels such as gasGovernments of 11 European nations are providing subsidies totalling more than £80bn a year to fossil fuel industries, green campaigners have claimed.Transport fuels account for the lion’s share of the support to fossil fuels. Many of the 11 countries surveyed encourage drivers to use diesel as it produces less carbon per mile than petrol, despite the fuel’s effect
  
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• DNA surgery on embryos removes disease

  28-09-2017 06:57 via bbc.co.uk
  A team in China is the first in the world to use "base editing" to alter the DNA of embryos.
  
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• Country diary: London park heron

  28-09-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Clissold Park, London Folded in on itself, the grey heron is still, only slightly moving its head to watch the water for an eel or frogOld Spear-Face crouches in the rushes. The great grey heron has folded itself, all beak and eye, wing and leg, invisibly for such a large bird, into the watery edge of bulrushes in a park busy with people. Perhaps the people pretend not to notice the heron so the heron believes it really is invisible; they may steal a glance at each other from different realities
  
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• Global carbon emissions stood still in 2016, offering climate hope

  28-09-2017 06:00 via theguardian.com
  The new data is a welcome sign of progress in the battle against global warming but many challenges remain, including methane from cattleGlobal emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide remained static in 2016, a welcome sign that the world is making at least some progress in the battle against global warming by halting the long-term rising trend.All of the world’s biggest emitting nations, except India, saw falling or static carbon emissions due to less coal burning and increasing renew
  
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• Environmentalists: UK's Antarctic islands need protection

  28-09-2017 02:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Conservationists push the UK to make its remote South Sandwich Islands a protected sanctuary.
  
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• Listen to Radiohead and Hans Zimmer's Blue Planet collaboration (Ocean) Bloom

  28-09-2017 01:04 via theguardian.com
  The band and the composer have released the track, which is a reworking of Radiohead’s Bloom and will be the theme to the forthcoming nature seriesRadiohead and Hans Zimmer have released a clip of their collaboration (Ocean) Bloom, which will be the opening music for the forthcoming BBC series Blue Planet II. The track is an orchestral reworking of Bloom, Radiohead’s song from their 2011 album The King of Limbs, and will appear during the prequel to the BBC’s flagship nature do
  
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