Environment news

• A Win-Win for Spotted Owls and Forest Management

  04-10-2017 23:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  Remote sensing technology has detected what could be a win for both spotted owls and forestry management, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and the University of Washington.
  
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• Fish Shrinking as Ocean Temperatures Rise

  04-10-2017 23:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  One of the most economically important fish is shrinking in body weight, length and overall physical size as ocean temperatures rise, according to new research by LSU Boyd Professor R. Eugene Turner published today. The average body size of Menhaden — a small, silver fish — caught off the coasts from Maine to Texas — has shrunk by about 15 percent over the past 65 years.
  
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• Are we at a tipping point with weed control?

  04-10-2017 23:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  If farmers could no longer control weeds with existing herbicides, Americans would take notice pretty quickly
  
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• Australia's politics only barrier to clean energy system, report finds

  04-10-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Climate Council finds agreement among experts and authorities that there are no technological or economic obstacles to a grid powered by renewablesPolitics is the only barrier to modernising Australia’s ageing electricity system, according to a synthesis report by the Climate Council.The council found there was agreement among a series of major independent reports that there were no technological or economic barriers to a clean, secure, affordable and reliable grid. Continue reading...
  
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• Sputnik's influence

  04-10-2017 16:12 via bbc.co.uk
  For the Soviet Union, the launch of the satellite was a triumph not just for science. but socialism.
  
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• To Predict How Climate Change Will Affect Disease, Researchers Must Fuse Climate Science and Biology

  04-10-2017 16:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  Predicting how climate change will affect the incidence of infectious diseases would have great public health benefits. But the relationship between climate and disease is extraordinarily complex, making such predictions difficult. Simply identifying correlations and statistical associations between climatic factors and disease won’t be enough, said Princeton University researcher Jessica Metcalf. Instead, researchers need new statistical models that incorporate both climate
  
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• In Times of Climate Change: What a Lake's Colour Can Tell About Its Condition

  04-10-2017 15:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  With the help of satellite observations from 188 lakes worldwide, scientists at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) have shown that the warming of large lakes amplifies their colour. Lakes which are green due to their high phytoplankton content tend to become greener in warm years as phytoplankton content increases. Clear, blue lakes with little phytoplankton, on the other hand, tend to become even bluer in warm years caused by declines in phytoplankton. Thus,
  
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• Higher Risk of Heart Failure in Cold Weather, Study Suggests

  04-10-2017 15:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  Could decreases in temperature cause heart failure and death?
  
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• A Stinging Report: FSU Research Shows Climate Change a Major Threat to Bumble Bees

  04-10-2017 15:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  New research from a team of Florida State University scientists and their collaborators is helping to explain the link between a changing global climate and a dramatic decline in bumble bee populations worldwide.
  
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• Large Volcanic Eruptions in Tropics Can Trigger El Niño Events

  04-10-2017 15:21 via feedproxy.google.com
  Explosive volcanic eruptions in the tropics can lead to El Niño events, those notorious warming periods in the Pacific Ocean with dramatic global impacts on the climate, according to a new study.
  
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• New climate change tool will help keep Canadians safe

  04-10-2017 15:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers at the University of Regina have recently launched a new climate change tool designed to help project future climate changes.The tool, called the Canada Climate Change Data Portal (CCCDP), was developed by researchers in the University of Regina’s Institute for Energy Environment and Sustainable Communities (IEESC).
  
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• 'Wild animal selfies': charity condemns trend following Amazon investigation

  04-10-2017 14:42 via theguardian.com
  Research by World Animal Protection in Brazil and Peru has revealed rise in photos with wild animals on Instagram, as well as growing instances of cruelty, and is launching a Wildlife Selfie CodeSome of the Amazon’s most endangered creatures are under threat from the growing trend of tourists taking “wild animal selfies”, according to a new investigation by the charity World Animal Protection released this week. Selfies with animals has become a trend in recent years, with a 29
  
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• The dog with the world's longest tongue

  04-10-2017 12:41 via bbc.co.uk
  Meet Mochi from South Dakota, who has just bagged herself a Guinness World Record.
  
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• Why factory farming is not just cruel – but also a threat to all life on the planet

  04-10-2017 12:36 via theguardian.com
  It’s time the world woke up to the real impact of modern, industrial farming, says Philip Lymbery, author of Farmageddon and the DeadzoneThe world desperately needs joined-up action on industrial farming if it is to avoid catastrophic impacts on life on earth, according to the head of one of the world’s most highly regarded animal campaign groups.Philip Lymbery, chief executive of Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and the author of Farmageddon and more recently Deadzone, said: &ldqu
  
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• Factory farming is not just cruel – it's inefficient, says Farmageddon author

  04-10-2017 12:36 via theguardian.com
  Industrial agriculture contributes to deforestation, soil erosion and pollution, and uses antibiotics that create global health risks. Philip Lymbery argues for a regenerative farming futureThe world desperately needs joined-up action on industrial farming if it is to avoid catastrophic impacts on life on earth, the head of one of the world’s most highly regarded animal campaign groups has said.Philip Lymbery, chief executive of Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and the author of Farmaged
  
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• The day we witnessed wildlife rangers being gunned down in Congo

  04-10-2017 12:04 via theguardian.com
  When two Dutch journalists travelled to the DRC to report on illegal gold mining in the vast Okapi wildlife reserve, they ended up running for their livesConflict is never far away in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a country rich in natural resources such as gold, diamonds, coltan and tin – and the country is on the brink of a new full out civil war. Tensions have been rising since December, when president Joseph Kabila postponed the elections.Continue reading...
  
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• Nobel prize awarded for imaging molecules

  04-10-2017 11:57 via bbc.co.uk
  The Nobel prize in chemistry is awarded to three scientists for advances in the imaging of biological molecules
  
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• Fukushima operator can restart nuclear reactors at world's biggest plant

  04-10-2017 11:23 via theguardian.com
  Tepco, still struggling to decommission Fukushima Daiichi, gets initial approval to start two reactors at Kashiwazaki-KariwaThe operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been given initial approval to restart reactors at another atomic facility, marking the first step towards the firm’s return to nuclear power generation more than six years after the March 2011 triple meltdown.
  Japan’s nuclear regulator on Wednesday approved an application from Toky
  
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• The pioneering vets who save rhinos left for dead by poachers – in pictures

  04-10-2017 11:00 via theguardian.com
  South Africa’s rising poaching problem has seen a shocking 6,115 rhinos killed in the last nine years. Saving the Survivors’ ground-breaking initiative sees a small team of vets race to the scene to try and treat the animals before it’s too late Continue reading...
  
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• Revealed: every Londoner breathing dangerous levels of toxic air particle

  04-10-2017 10:30 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Every area of the capital breaches global standards for PM2.5 pollution particles, with most areas exceeding levels by at least 50%The scale of London’s air pollution crisis was laid bare on Wednesday, with new figures showing that every person in the capital is breathing air that exceeds global guidelines for one of the most dangerous toxic particles.The research, based on the latest updated London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory, shows that every area in the capital exceeds Wo
  
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• Time to shine: Solar power is fastest-growing source of new energy

  04-10-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Renewables accounted for two-thirds of new power added to world’s grids last year, says International Energy AgencySolar power was the fastest-growing source of new energy worldwide last year, outstripping the growth in all other forms of power generation for the first time and leading experts to hail a “new era”.Renewable energy accounted for two-thirds of new power added to the world’s grids in 2016, the International Energy Agency said, but the group found solar was th
  
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• Goodbye – and good riddance – to livestock farming | George Monbiot

  04-10-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The suffering inherent in mass meat production can’t be justified. And as the artificial meat industry grows, the last argument for farming animals has now collapsedWhat will future generations, looking back on our age, see as its monstrosities? We think of slavery, the subjugation of women, judicial torture, the murder of heretics, imperial conquest and genocide, the first world war and the rise of fascism, and ask ourselves how people could have failed to see the horror of what they did.
  
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• Country diary: huge jellyfish shipwrecked on the sands

  04-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Morfa Harlech, Gwynedd They have drifted on ocean currents for 500m years, pulsing gently towards landfall The wave smudges out something written in the sand with a stick. I imagine it as a spell cast to charm ashore those lost at sea. And so it does, as tides ebb and flow, stranding the barrel jellyfish. These extraordinary creatures, also known as dustbin-lid jellyfish because of their size and shape, have been shipwrecked after an epic voyage.Rhizostoma pulmo or R octopus is the largest jelly
  
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• Sydney waste-power incinerator plans halved amid pollution and health fears

  04-10-2017 04:32 via theguardian.com
  Plant’s operator seeks approval for a phased development in the face of residents’ opposition and concerns over air qualityPlans for the world’s biggest waste-to-energy plant in Sydney’s west have been cut in half, in an effort to address concerns from health and environmental authorities, and residents.The Next Generation, a company owned by one of the largest waste operators in Australia – Ian Malouf, founder of Dial A Dump – has lodged new documents seeking
  
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• Cats kill 1 million Australian birds a day, study shows

  04-10-2017 04:22 via theguardian.com
  Number ‘staggering’, researchers say – and likely to be driving the decline of threatened native speciesMore than 1 million native Australian birds are killed across the country by cats every day, new research shows.The study, published in the journal Biological Conversation, estimates feral cats kill 316 million birds a year, while pet cats kill 61 million birds annually. More than 99% are native.Continue reading...
  
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• A lack of action on climate change is putting people's lives at risk | Mark Monighan

  04-10-2017 02:50 via theguardian.com
  In the 2014 Melbourne heatwave, 167 people died. Emergency departments can’t deal with this problem alone
  A new study warning Australia’s major cities are likely to reach highs of 50C by 2040 – even if the world meets its target of limiting warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels – is yet more evidence that without immediate and urgent action we are facing a looming public health crisis during heatwaves and other extreme weather events. The study follows recent unseason
  
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• The team that tracked Sputnik - and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile

  04-10-2017 02:44 via bbc.co.uk
  How a British observatory played a crucial part in the Cold War.
  
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• Bird deaths: Pheasants 'most likely species' to die on UK roads

  04-10-2017 01:02 via bbc.co.uk
  Pheasants are the bird species most likely to be run over on UK roads, according to new research.
  
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