Environment news

• Toronto Zoo's tumbling panda cubs

  06-10-2017 20:58 via bbc.co.uk
  The Canadian zoo releases a compilation video of their giant panda cubs falling and tumbling.
  
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• Group Tests Topical Treatment Strategy for Fighting Skin Cancer

  06-10-2017 20:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP), in Brazil, are testing a technique in mice that combines low-intensity electric current with a formulation containing nanoencapsulated chemotherapy to treat skin cancer. 
  
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• Primary Care Unable to Adequately Care for Cancer Survivors

  06-10-2017 20:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  Primary care medicine is currently not able to meet the health care needs of cancer survivors, despite a decade-long effort by the medical establishment to move long-term survivorship care out of the specialists’ realm, according to a new Rutgers study.
  
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• The Guardian view on Tory splits: doctrinal differences | Editorial

  06-10-2017 20:02 via theguardian.com
  MPs in the Tory party have to realise that voters have grown up in a culturally permissive era and are not aroused by the holy anger of the rightBig as the blow was to Theresa May at the general election in June, worse has followed. Not only was the election an unnecessary fight for Mrs May to have picked, she has emerged a diminished figure. Her cabinet is united – but mainly in their desire to succeed her. On the day of Mrs May’s big speech at the Conservative party conference this
  
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• Inconvenient facts about livestock farming | Letters

  06-10-2017 19:35 via theguardian.com
  Readers respond to George Monbiot’s call for an end to raising animals for foodGeorge Monbiot’s fear of the few remaining British farmers (Goodbye – and good riddance – to livestock farming, 4 October) reached new levels when he wrote that the “rich mosaic of rainforest and other habitats that once covered our hills has been erased” and blamed us for the tectonic drift that moved Britain from the equator towards the Arctic, perhaps 300m years ago. In the rest
  
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• Wayne Lotter obituary

  06-10-2017 18:54 via theguardian.com
  Conservationist who took on the ivory poachers to protect the African elephantWhen he was offered a leading role in the documentary The Ivory Game (2016) by its producer, Leonardo DiCaprio, the conservationist Wayne Lotter modestly gave the credit instead to his wildlife rangers, who led the way in tracking down one of Africa’s most notorious poachers, thought to be responsible for 10,000 elephants’ deaths. Lotter preferred to be in the background, while the spotlight fell on the cau
  
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• Electron Behaviour Under Extreme Conditions Described for the First Time

  06-10-2017 18:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers have modelled the actions of electrons under extreme temperatures and densities, such as those found within planets and stars.
  
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• Study finds any activity—from workouts to housework—is good for the heart

  06-10-2017 18:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  An international team of scientists, led by SFU health sciences professor Scott Lear, has found that physical activity of any kind—from gym workouts to housecleaning —can help prevent heart disease and even death.
  
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• New Report on Channel Bed Erosion Helps Assess Bridge Stability in St. Louis

  06-10-2017 18:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new assessment of channel bed erosion near 13 highway bridges in the greater St. Louis, Missouri, area is now available in an online report from the U.S. Geological Survey, produced in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation.
  
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• Microbes Dictate Regime Shifts Causing Anoxia in Lakes and Seas

  06-10-2017 18:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  Gradual environmental changes due to eutrophication and global warming can cause a rapid depletion of oxygen levels in lakes and coastal waters. A new study led by professors Jef Huisman and Gerard Muyzer of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) shows that microorganisms play a key role in these disastrous regime shifts. The researchers’ findings were published in the journal Nature Communications on 6 October.
  
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• Ammonia Emissions Unlikely To Be Causing Extreme China Haze

  06-10-2017 18:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  As China struggles to find ways to remedy the noxious haze that lingers over Beijing and other cities in the winter, researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology have cast serious doubt on one proposed cause: high levels of ammonia in the air.The wintertime air pollution has gained attention in the scientific community in recent years, prompting some scientists to propose that ammonia, emitted into the air from agricultural activities and automobiles, could be a precursor that strongly promo
  
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• Your bag for life doesn't have to carry a food poisoning risk. Here's what to do

  06-10-2017 17:42 via theguardian.com
  Environmental health officers are urging consumers not to switch back to plastic following recent warnings that raw foods can spread harmful bacteria. So how can you keep your reusable bags hygienic? The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) is urging consumers to continue to shop for food with reusable “bags for life”, fearing that worries about the food poisoning risks could trigger a backlash and even a resurgence in the use of thin plastic bags.Continue reading...
  
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• The Tories must seize this chance to make UK homes energy efficient

  06-10-2017 16:56 via theguardian.com
  Politicians may debate the merits of a cap on energy bills but making our leaky houses energy efficient is the solution that all political parties should unite behindAs the letters began to fall off the slogan behind Theresa May during her leader’s speech at the Conservative party conference, it was hard not to see symbolism. Not just of a premiership under threat, but also of a signature policy falling apart within hours of being announced.
  The cap on energy bills was a pledge in the Cons
  
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• Autumn conference round-up: What did the main parties say about the green economy?

  06-10-2017 16:49
  With the curtains now drawn on the 2017 autumn party conference season, edie has provided a full round-up of the major green-related highlights from the party conventions over the past three weeks.
  
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• Leopard captured after 36 hours on the loose at Indian car plant

  06-10-2017 16:44 via theguardian.com
  Big cat was spotted on CCTV by guards at country’s largest car factoryAnimal will be released into wild after medical examinationA leopard on the loose inside India’s largest car factory has been caught and tranquillised after sparking a frantic 36-hour search by 200 police and wildlife officials. Related: The leopards of Mumbai: life and death among the city's 'living ghosts'Continue reading...
  
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• How will Brexit affect British wildlife?

  06-10-2017 16:12 via theguardian.com
  The EU offered protection to everything from the harbour porpoise to hen harriers. Now, the future of UK conservation law is uncertainRead more: Britain’s wildlife needs urgent new protections ahead of Brexit
  As an EU member state, British wildlife has been protected under two important pieces of European legislation: the habitats directive and the birds directive. These have required the UK government to establish and manage sites for the protection of vulnerable and rare animals, birds,
  
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• Britain's wildlife needs urgent new protections ahead of Brexit, say MPs

  06-10-2017 16:12 via theguardian.com
  EU laws that have protected hundreds of conservation sites and the species that live in them for decades could be watered down or lost with the EU withdrawal billInteractive: How will Brexit affect British wildlife?Hundreds of treasured wildlife habitats across the UK that have been protected for decades by the European Union must be urgently maintained and preserved with a new environment act, MPs and campaigners say. Continue reading...
  
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• Butterfly swarm shows up on Denver radar system

  06-10-2017 16:02 via bbc.co.uk
  Weather scientists first mistook the radar pattern to be birds, and turned to social media for help.
  
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• EU rules out tax on plastic products to reduce waste

  06-10-2017 15:53 via theguardian.com
  EU opts for public awareness campaign on the impacts of plastics on the environment saying a tax would not be sustainableThe EU has ruled out penalties on single-use plastic products, in favour of raising public awareness of the damage consumer plastics are doing to the world’s oceans.Frans Timmermans, vice president of the European commission, said a tax would “not be sustainable”, but that changing the way plastic was produced and used could work. “The only sustainable
  
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• Sustainable Business Covered podcast: What makes a responsible retailer?

  06-10-2017 13:23
  The world of retail is competitive, but sustainability has emerged as a viable way for companies to differentiate themselves. At edie's recent London-based event, the question on everybody's lips was...what makes a responsible retailer?
  
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• Report: CCS could boost UK economy by £160bn

  06-10-2017 12:56
  New research has claimed that carbon capture and storage (CCS) could boost the UK economy by more than £160bn if the technology is deployed on the east coast of the country.
  
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• Climate change in the Caribbean – learning lessons from Irma and Maria

  06-10-2017 12:43 via theguardian.com
  Increasingly unfamiliar and unpredictable weather events mean that business as usual is not an option for these islands to surviveAs a Caribbean climate scientist, I am often asked to speak about how climate change affects small islands. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, one of two category five storms to batter the eastern Caribbean in just a week, three words resonate in my mind. The first word is “unfamiliar”. Scientific analysis shows that the climate of the Caribbean region i
  
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• National Grid measures real-time system inertia for the first time

  06-10-2017 12:37
  For the first time ever, the National Grid has successfully measured and monitored continuous grid stability across an entire network, in a move that could reduce end-customer costs and carbon emissions in the UK.
  
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• Ican director: I thought Nobel peace prize win was a prank – video

  06-10-2017 12:28 via theguardian.com
  Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), says she initially thought the announcement of the award was a prank. Speaking on Friday at Ican’s head office in Geneva, Switzerland, Fihn describes the prize as a surprise and an honour Continue reading...
  
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• Peru urged to ban oil firms from isolated indigenous peoples' land

  06-10-2017 12:25 via theguardian.com
  Indigenous leaders say operations in the remote Amazon violate rights and risk fatal epidemicsThere are more indigenous peoples living in “isolation” in Peru than any country in the world except Brazil. All live in the Amazon - the majority in poorly-protected reserves, or areas where reserves have been proposed but never established, or “protected natural areas” such as national parks.For years indigenous federations and other civil society organisations in Peru and abro
  
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• Sadiq Khan asks car manufacturers to give funds towards tackling London’s toxic air

  06-10-2017 11:34 via theguardian.com
  Mayor has written to BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen urging them to contribute funding to help combat UK pollution as they have done in GermanyThe mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has written to three leading car manufacturers asking them to contribute to the fund set up to tackle the capital’s air pollution crisis.Khan has accused BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen of “double standards” after it emerged they had paid £223m to the German government’s Sustainable Mobili
  
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• Protect indigenous people to help fight climate change, says UN rapporteur

  06-10-2017 10:53 via theguardian.com
  World leaders must do more to defend custodians of natural world whose lives are at risk from big business, says UN rapporteur Victoria Tauli-CorpuzGlobal leaders must do more to protect indigenous people fighting to protect their land and way of life if the world is to limit climate change, according to the UN special rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz.Speaking ahead of key climate talks in Bonn next month she urged politicians to recognise that indigenous communities around the world were the mo
  
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• Renault commits to electric and autonomous vehicles to drive sales growth

  06-10-2017 10:44
  French car manufacturer Renault will tap into the electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous driving (AD) markets to help deliver annual revenues of more than €70bn by 2022, as part of the company's Drive the Future strategy.
  
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• Ivory trade to be banned in UK 'to protect elephants'

  06-10-2017 09:02 via bbc.co.uk
  Conservation groups welcome government proposals for a full-scale ban on sales and exports.
  
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• Only science can solve the intriguing stick insect mystery | First Dog on the Moon

  06-10-2017 07:56 via theguardian.com
  The world is terrible, mainly because of people. But today there is good news – the Lord Howe Island stick insect isn’t extinct!Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and printsContinue reading...
  
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• UK ivory trade ban to help end 'shame' of elephant poaching

  06-10-2017 07:30 via theguardian.com
  Current UK law allows trade in ‘antiques’ carved before 1947 but government bows to campaigners and will ban sale of ivory regardless of ageThe UK government has bowed to campaigners and will ban the sale of ivory regardless of age, according to a new consultation.The UK is the biggest exporter of legal ivory in the world and shutting down the trade will help prevent illegal ivory being laundered by criminals. More than 50 elephants are killed by poachers every day on average and the
  
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• Queensland tree clearing wipes out federal emissions gains

  06-10-2017 06:49 via theguardian.com
  Accelerating rates of land clearing in Queensland are undermining Australia’s Direct Action greenhouse gas cutsAccelerating rates of tree clearing in Queensland are wiping out any cuts to greenhouse gas emissions the federal government has made through its $2.55bn Direct Action fund, according to the latest data released by the Queensland government.The results also point again to apparent holes in the federal government’s greenhouse gas accounting, as its official figures maintain t
  
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• Country diary: signs of life on a shingle shore

  06-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Dungeness, Kent This is an exposed environment, buffeted by maritime winds, the closest the UK gets to a desert. But lichen heath is taking holdThe vast shark’s tooth of shingle that is Dungeness protrudes into the strait of Dover. Though the sky is overcast, as I drive on to the promontory the light intensifies, reflecting from the sea on to the flint pebbles. It’s like walking into a room with glass walls.This is an ancient, undulating, beach dotted with old abandoned boats and she
  
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• SS Thistlegorm images released by Nottingham University

  06-10-2017 02:18 via bbc.co.uk
  The SS Thistlegorm, a British merchant steam ship, was hit by a German bomber in 1941.
  
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• Off-grid recycling plants and energy from tears: the best green innovations of the week

  06-10-2017 02:01
  In a week of bold business pledges, edie rounds up the low-carbon and resource-efficient innovations that could shape corporate sustainability in the future.
  
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• Interpreting Hurricane Forecast Displays Can Be Difficult for General Public

  06-10-2017 00:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  The 2017 hurricane season has highlighted the critical need to communicate a storm’s impact path and intensity accurately, but new research from the University of Utah shows significant misunderstandings of the two most commonly used storm forecast visualization methods.
  
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