Environment news

• Scientists Find New Source of Radioactivity from Fukushima Disaster

  02-10-2017 23:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists have found a previously unsuspected place where radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster has accumulated—in sands and brackish groundwater beneath beaches up to 60 miles away. The sands took up and retained radioactive cesium originating from the disaster in 2011 and have been slowly releasing it back to the ocean.“No one is either exposed to, or drinks, these waters, and thus public health is not of primary concern here,” the sci
  
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• Stark Evidence: A Warmer World Is Sparking More and Bigger Wildfires

  02-10-2017 21:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  On a single hot, dry day this summer, an astonishing 140 wildfires leapt to life across British Columbia. “Friday, July 7 was just crazy,” says Mike Flannigan, director of the wildland fire partnership at the University of Alberta. A state of emergency was declared. By the end of summer, more than 1,000 fires had been triggered across the Canadian province, burning a record nearly 3 million acres of forest—nearly 10 times the average in British Columbia over the last decade. As
  
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• New Research System Finds & Targets Vulnerabilities in Lung Cancer Cells

  02-10-2017 20:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  Genetic changes that help lung cancer thrive also make it vulnerable to a promising experimental drug, according to a study led by researchers from Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health, and published online October 2 in Nature Medicine.
  
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• Hubble Is Paving Scientific Paths for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

  02-10-2017 20:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is helping identify potential celestial targets for the James Webb Space Telescope through a series of preparatory science observations to be completed before Webb is ready to make observations of its own.
  
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• ALMA and Rosetta Detect Freon-40 in Space

  02-10-2017 20:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  Using data captured by ALMA in Chile and from the ROSINA instrument on ESA’s Rosetta mission, a team of astronomers has found faint traces of the chemical compound Freon-40 (CH3Cl), also known as methyl chloride and chloromethane, around both the infant star system IRAS 16293-2422 [1], about 400 light-years away, and the famous comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) in our own Solar System. The new ALMA observation is the first
  
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• Scientists Suggest Significant Scale of Human Impact on Planet Has Changed Course of Earth's History

  02-10-2017 20:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  The significant scale of human impact on our planet has changed the course of Earth history, an international team of scientists led by our School of Geography, Geology and the Environment has suggested.
  
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• Asphalt Helps Lithium Batteries Charge Faster

  02-10-2017 20:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  A touch of asphalt may be the secret to high-capacity lithium metal batteries that charge 10 to 20 times faster than commercial lithium-ion batteries, according to Rice University scientists.
  
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• Low Consumption of Vitamin K by Adolescents Associated with Unhealthy Enlargement of the Heart's Major Pumping Chamber

  02-10-2017 20:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists have found another reason for children to eat their green leafy vegetables.
  
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• Irish Scientists Discover Method to Produce Electricity from Tears

  02-10-2017 20:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  A team of scientists at University of Limerick has discovered that applying pressure to a protein found in egg whites and tears can generate electricity. The researchers from the Bernal Institute observed that crystals of lysozyme, a model protein that is abundant in egg whites of birds as well as in the tears, saliva and milk of mammals can generate electricity when pressed. Their report was published on October 2 in the journal, Applied Physics Letters.
  
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• Los Angeles Is Losing Its Palm Trees

  02-10-2017 20:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  Palm trees have been synonymous with Los Angeles for decades, appearing on everything from tourism ads to movie posters. But now, LA’s iconic trees are dying from a fatal fungus and an invasive beetle, as well as simply from old age, and the city doesn’t have any plans to revive them, according to Los Angeles Times.
  
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• Slinging mud: inside (and outside) the UK's biggest fracking site

  02-10-2017 19:59 via theguardian.com
  As horizontal drilling starts in Lancashire this month, the Guardian talks to protesters and staff at the Cuadrilla wellMike Hill, sitting in his living room a few miles from a fracking site outside Blackpool, is brandishing a government letter brushing aside his concerns about the industry. “You, Theresa May, overruled democracy to force fracking on the residents of Fylde,” he says, referring to his own letter to the prime minister, in which he urges her to heed experts’ calls
  
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• Clearing the air

  02-10-2017 19:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  This past June, Grace Li '17 stepped off a plane in Paris ready to spend her summer tracking down a silent killer. Now Li, her former teammates, and the flock of trained pigeons who also contributed to the project are about to get closer to their goal.
  
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• Michael Gove suggests plastic bottle deposit scheme

  02-10-2017 18:54 via bbc.co.uk
  Michael Gove wants views on whether a "reward and return" system would improve recycling in England.
  
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• Michael Gove calls for views on setting up plastic bottle deposit return scheme

  02-10-2017 18:02 via theguardian.com
  Environment secretary says working group will look at how a deposit return scheme could help reduce plastic waste in England A deposit return scheme aimed at slashing plastic pollution has moved significantly closer after environment secretary Michael Gove said he would work with the industry to see how a scheme can be implemented in England.Gove, speaking at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, announced a four-week call for views to inform how a deposit return scheme (DRS) would be
  
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• I released a death’s-head hawkmoth into the wild. I’m sorry | Patrick Barkham

  02-10-2017 17:30 via theguardian.com
  My apologies to Butterfly Conservation for releasing my daughter’s beloved death’s-head hawkmothThere was no sign of forced entry when I returned home with my family from a day out. So we jumped out of our skins when we noticed a stranger sitting silently in the kitchen, dressed head-to-toe in black, with a yellow skull etched on its back. Enormous and unlike any insect I’d ever encountered, here lurked a death’s-head hawkmoth. Continue reading...
  
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• Electric car owners 'can drive for free by letting energy firms use battery'

  02-10-2017 17:30 via theguardian.com
  Savings from a new scheme will cover the £350-£400 annual cost of charging a Nissan Leaf, says electricity supplier OvoElectric car owners will be paid for letting an energy company use their vehicle’s battery in a pioneering scheme to increase take-up of the cleaner vehicles and help power grids manage the growth in green energy.Nissan and one of the UK’s biggest challenger energy suppliers, Ovo, will offer the “vehicle-to-grid” service to buyers of the Japan
  
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• Wildscreen's Witness the Wild open-air exhibition – in pictures

  02-10-2017 16:50 via theguardian.com
  Bristol’s open-air arts trail sees large-scale images of ocean life by some of the world’s leading wildlife photographers come to the city’s suburbs, to raise awareness of the species and their fight for survivalContinue reading...
  
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• Bags for life carry food poisoning risk if used for raw meat or fish

  02-10-2017 15:58 via theguardian.com
  Use separate bags for raw foods, ready-to-eat foods, and household products to avoid bacteria spreading, warns food safety watchdogReusable “bags for life” can spread deadly food poisoning bacteria if they are used to carry raw foods such as fish and meat, consumers have been warned by the government’s food safety watchdog.In revised guidance on its website, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is recommending that shoppers use separate bags to carry raw foods, ready-to eat foods an
  
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• Puerto Rico facing disaster of major proportions

  02-10-2017 15:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  A week after Hurricane Maria rolled through Puerto Rico, the island faces a public health crisis with no power and a growing shortage of drinking water and food.
  
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• Annual Southern Sea Otter Survey: Despite Small Population Dip, Species Moves a Step Closer to Recovery

  02-10-2017 15:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  According to data released Friday by the U.S. Geological Survey and partners, the three-year average of the total counts of southern sea otters was down from last year’s high, although it still exceeded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s delisting threshold for a second straight year.
  
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• All zoos should be closed – other species have rights | Philip Hoare

  02-10-2017 14:00 via theguardian.com
  When nearly 500 animals die in less than four years in one zoo, surely it’s time to reconsider this anachronistic way of showing our children that the world is full of beautiful animalsWhat does it take to close down a zoo? The death of nearly 500 of its captives in less than four years? The tragedy of South Lakes Safari Zoo in Cumbria is measured out in those losses – inconsequential or unlucky as they may be seen in the eyes of some, pathetic and terrible in the eyes of others. It
  
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• Body clock scientists win Nobel Prize

  02-10-2017 13:18 via bbc.co.uk
  Understanding how our bodies keep time has "vast implications" for health, say Nobel committee.
  
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• Why the 97% climate consensus is important | Dana Nuccitelli, John Cook, Sander van der Linden, Tony Leiserowitz, Ed Maibach

  02-10-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Some have argued that consensus messaging is counter-productive. Here’s why they’re wrong.
  Unfortunately, humans don’t have infinite brain capacity, so no one can become an expert on every subject. But people have found ways to overcome our individual limitations through social intelligence, for example by developing and paying special attention to the consensus of experts. Modern societies have developed entire institutions to distill and communicate expert consensus, ranging
  
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• Coca-Cola increased its production of plastic bottles by a billion last year, says Greenpeace

  02-10-2017 11:28 via theguardian.com
  Increase puts Coke’s production at more than 110bn single-use plastic bottles a year, according to analysis by the green groupCoca-Cola increased its production of throwaway plastic bottles last year by well over a billion, according to analysis by Greenpeace.The world’s biggest soft drinks company does not disclose how much plastic packaging it puts into the market. But analysis by the campaign group Greenpeace reveals what they say is an increase in production of single-use PET bot
  
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• UK's longest-lasting patch of snow melts away

  02-10-2017 10:14 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK's hardiest snow patch melts for what is thought to be only the seventh time in 300 years.
  
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• Poorly insulated homes may cost £1bn extra in energy bills

  02-10-2017 08:01 via theguardian.com
  Legal loophole means landlords won’t need to comply with regulations aiming to protect tenants and cut carbon emissionsTenants in the UK’s draughtiest homes risk paying £1bn extra in energy bills because of a government loophole letting landlords off the hook, a charity has warned.Landlords will be banned from letting poorly insulated homes from next April under new regulations designed to protect vulnerable tenants and cut carbon emissions. Continue reading...
  
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• Natural health service: wildlife volunteers get mental health boost

  02-10-2017 07:45 via theguardian.com
  Research supports the idea that nature could be widely prescribed by doctors as a therapy, easing the burden on the NHSVolunteers on wildlife projects benefit from a big boost to their mental health, according to new research. It advances the idea that nature could be widely prescribed by doctors as a therapy, which its supporters say would ease the burden on the NHS.The new analysis tracked people across England taking part in projects run by the Wildlife Trusts, ranging from nature walks and c
  
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• Sardinia yacht club targets sailors with charter to cut plastic waste

  02-10-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  Charta Smerelda aims to encourage 150,000 sailors to reduce plastic pollution in ocean and protect marine habitatsOne of the most exclusive yacht clubs in the world has drawn up an environmental charter to ask 150,000 sailors across the globe to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean.The Costa Smerelda yacht club in Sardinia, established by the Aga Khan 50 years ago, is publishing the charter to cut plastic waste at the One Ocean Forum conference. International sailing organisations have signed u
  
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• Nationals MP rejects idea GST be used to make states develop gas

  02-10-2017 06:43 via theguardian.com
  Andrew Broad says untapped reserves are not creating gas shortages and government should fix exports, which are to blameThe GST should not be used to force states to lift bans on gas exploration and development because exports, not bans, are to blame for shortages, the Nationals MP Andrew Broad has said.On Monday the energy and environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, doubled down on the government’s threat to use goods and services tax distribution as a lever to force states to end bans on
  
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• Country diary: the charged stillness of the kestrel

  02-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Kinder Scout, DerbyshireKestrel numbers may be in decline but we saw maybe half a dozen hanging in the updraft or plummeting into peat groughsThe perfect wild camping place: an obliging flat spot next to a horseshoe-shaped meander where the stream has carved out a tall bank from the soft shale grit, offering water close to hand and shelter from the wind. Best of all, our tents face towards a slope covered in reefs of purple heather that are being prowled by a kestrel. Though dinner consists of a
  
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• Coogee beach water quality rises but Sydney harbour spots sink

  02-10-2017 02:59 via theguardian.com
  Drier weather helps give famous stretch a clean bill of health as State of the Beaches report finds 98% of NSW ocean beaches suitable for swimming One of Australia’s most famous beaches, Coogee, has joined its Sydney neighbour Bondi in receiving a clean bill of health in the latest assessment of New South Wales beaches.But problems still persist at Sydney harbour swimming spots, at Malabar in Sydney’s south, and at popular beaches on the central coast, notably Avoca and Terrigal, due
  
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