Environment news

• Matt Canavan tells Q&A Finkel review economic modelling is wrong

  09-10-2017 23:24 via theguardian.com
  Former resources minister refuses to endorse clean energy target and says he has ‘queries’ about Finkel price predictionsThe government’s sidelined resources minister, Matt Canavan, has refused to back a clean energy target and says he thinks some of the Finkel review’s economic modelling is wrong.On the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night Canavan, who quit cabinet when it was revealed he is one of seven politicians facing uncertainty about his eligibility to stan
  
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• Tony Abbott says climate change is 'probably doing good'

  09-10-2017 22:06 via theguardian.com
  Former Australian PM delivers speech in London comparing global warming action to ‘killing goats to appease volcano gods’Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has suggested climate change is “probably doing good” in a speech in London in which he likened policies to combat it to “primitive people once killing goats to appease the volcano gods” . Abbott delivered the annual lecture to the London-based Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), a climate sc
  
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• Ben & Jerry’s to launch glyphosate-free ice-cream after tests find traces of weedkiller

  09-10-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Company pledges products will be free from ingredients tainted with controversial herbicide after survey found traces in its European ice-creamsBen & Jerry’s has moved to cut all glyphosate-tainted ingredients from its production chain and introduce an “organic dairy” line next year, after a new survey found widespread traces of the controversial substance in its European ice-creams.The dramatic initiative follows a new survey by Health Research Institute (HRI) l
  
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• 'The war on coal is over': EPA boss to roll back Obama's clean power rules

  09-10-2017 18:14 via theguardian.com
  Scott Pruitt says he will sign rule withdrawing policy on TuesdayPlan imposed restrictions on emissions from coal-fired power stationsThe head of the Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday that he will sign a new rule overriding the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.Related: Trump EPA plan will roll back Obama standards on power plant emissionsContinue reading...
  
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• Beware, aspiring buyers of small islands. They resist private ownership | Patrick Barkham

  09-10-2017 18:04 via theguardian.com
  There’s something deeply nonconformist about small islanders. But Scotland’s new laws give communities such as that of Ulva the chance to buy land themselvesA tiny island for sale is good news because many of us – or perhaps it’s just me – nurse fantasies about withdrawing to a sea-girt sanctuary we can shape into our own paradise. Related: After centuries of neglect, are Scotland’s islands now on the road to recovery?Continue reading...
  
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• Namibia says anthrax could be to blame for deaths of more than 100 hippos

  09-10-2017 17:37 via theguardian.com
  Hippos died in Bwabwata national park in country’s north-eastEnvironment minister says crocodiles may have eaten some of the carcassesMore than 100 hippos have died in Namibia in a remote national park in the past week, the country’s environment minister said on Monday, warning that anthrax could be to blame.Images from the Bwabwata national park in north-east Namibia showed dozens of lifeless hippos, some flat on their backs, others with just their heads visible above murky water. C
  
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• India's supreme court bans Diwali fireworks in Delhi to tackle pollution

  09-10-2017 15:57 via theguardian.com
  Ruling made in effort to halt spike in toxic smog that led to closure of schools, power stations and construction sites last yearIndia’s supreme court has banned the sale of fireworks in Delhi during the upcoming Diwali festival, hoping to prevent the usual spike in toxic air pollution levels that accompany the holiday.Last year’s Hindu festival of lights, in which tens of thousands of firecrackers are burst in Delhi over several days, left the city sheeted in toxic smog that forced
  
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• Smart Coca-Cola dispensers to help university students slash soft drinks packaging

  09-10-2017 15:34
  Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has teamed up with the University of Reading to hand out micro-chipped refillable drinks bottles to students to support a more sustainable packaging system on campus.
  
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• British mission to giant A-68 berg approved

  09-10-2017 15:34 via bbc.co.uk
  UK scientists will take a ship to explore waters exposed by a huge new iceberg in the Antarctic.
  
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• Secrecy around air pollution controls in cars faces legal challenge

  09-10-2017 14:16 via theguardian.com
  New EU rules that allow car firms to keep their emissions control systems secret from the public risk another dieselgate and should be made illegal, say environmental lawyersNew EU rules that allow car manufacturers to keep pollution control systems secret from the public should be declared illegal, according to environmental lawyers.The systems can legally cut emissions controls under certain conditions on the road, meaning more pollution is produced. But keeping these strategies secret risks a
  
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• IRENA: Falling costs could see installed battery storage grow 17-fold by 2030

  09-10-2017 14:09
  Battery storage installations could experience a 17-fold growth by 2030 due to the rapidly falling price of batteries, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
  
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• How P&G formed a new supply chain to combat ocean plastics

  09-10-2017 13:56
  EXCLUSIVE: The Procter & Gamble (P&G) Company's new Fairy Ocean Plastic Bottle serves to highlight a "totally new supply chain and approach" to incorporating post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic into products, as the firm closes in on a 2020 packaging target.
  
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• Mega-battery plant to come online in Sheffield

  09-10-2017 13:12 via theguardian.com
  Facility run by E.ON, to be followed by many more, will help UK grid cope with fast-growing amount of renewable energyOne of the first of a new fleet of industrial-scale battery plants will come online in Sheffield this week to help the grid cope with the rapidly growing amount of renewable power.E.ON said the facility, which is next to an existing power plant and has the equivalent capacity of half a million phone batteries, marked a milestone in its efforts to develop storage for electricity f
  
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• Britain's first mega-battery plant to come online in Sheffield

  09-10-2017 13:12 via theguardian.com
  Facility run by E.ON, to be followed by many more, will help UK grid cope with fast-growing amount of renewable energyBritain’s first industrial-scale battery plant will come online in Sheffield this week to help the grid cope with the rapidly growing amount of renewable power.E.ON said the facility, which is next to an existing power plant and has the equivalent capacity of half a million phone batteries, marked a milestone in its efforts to develop storage for power from wind farms, nucl
  
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• EU Commission taken to court over new emissions tests for vehicles

  09-10-2017 12:19
  Environmental group ClientEarth has taken legal action against the European Commission's new rules for car emissions tests, which will allow manufacturers to keep their emissions control systems secret and, according to the group, cause another Dieselgate-type scandal.
  
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• Trump’s plan to bail out failing fossil fuels with taxpayer subsidies is perverse | Dana Nuccitelli

  09-10-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Coal can no longer compete in the free market, so the Trump administration wants to prop it up with taxpayer subsidiesThe conservative philosophy of allowing an unregulated free market to operate unfettered often seems to fall by the wayside when the Republican Party’s industry allies are failing to compete in the marketplace. Trump’s Energy Secretary Rick Perry recently provided a stark example of this philosophical flexibility when he proposed to effectively pull the failing coal i
  
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• Alan Finkel defends clean energy target as Coalition turns its back

  09-10-2017 10:54 via theguardian.com
  Chief scientist once again endorses proposed mechanism as fastest, most flexible way to transform marketThe chief scientist says changes the Turnbull government is contemplating to the national electricity market would take five years to take effect, whereas his proposal for a clean energy target would achieve transformation more quickly, with “enormous flexibility” for the market.
  Alan Finkel’s last ditch attempt to defend his mechanism followed another public signal by the en
  
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• The Secret Life of Cows by Rosamund Young – review

  09-10-2017 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Ever wondered if cows bore a grudge? This may be the book for youThis meditative little book isn’t new: it came out first in 2003, when it was published by a small farming press. But then a beady-eyed editor at Faber noticed Alan Bennett had praised it in his diary (“it alters the way one looks at the world”, he wrote in an entry on 24 August 2006), with the result that it has now been republished. Its author, Rosamund Young, who lives and works at Kite’s Nest, an organic
  
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• 'Simply stunning': your favourite cycle rides around the world

  09-10-2017 09:27 via theguardian.com
  Our readers on their most cherished cycling routes, from remote Scottish islands to Japanese mountain rangesContinue reading...
  
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• Country diary: mushrooms work their magic amid the drizzle

  09-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Dolebury Warren, Somerset In an iron age hill fort once ruled by rabbits, waxcaps speckle the ground with luminous colourThis shapely hill has steep sides, the sheep-walked turf trodden into neat pleats along the contours. On the ridge, upstanding stony ribs encircle a heart of deeper soil – the iron age hill fort, the Dolebury. In medieval times, when rabbits were tender creatures, a protective warren was built up here, completing the modern name for the place. Nowadays the rabbits look a
  
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• Beautiful light projections on the Tasman Glacier highlight impact of climate change – video

  09-10-2017 02:41 via theguardian.com
  A
  short film shot by  Heath Patterson captures photographer Vaughan BrookfieldandTom
  Lynch'sjourney to a New Zealand glacier equipped with hundreds
  of kilograms of gear and a light projector. Their plan was to project images on to the rapidly receding Tasman Glacier. Brookfield says: 'We want to remind people of the effects humans are having on the environment' 
   Continue reading...
  
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• Frydenberg signals government poised to abandon clean energy target

  09-10-2017 02:16 via theguardian.com
  Energy minister says electricity sector wants stability, ‘not necessarily handouts’ suggesting renewables won’t be subsidised b after 2020The energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, says Australia’s electricity sector is looking for stability, “not necessarily” for handouts, in a signal the Turnbull government is poised to abandon the clean energy target.
  In comments to an energy summit on Monday, Frydenberg pointed to the falling costs of renewable energy as one of
  
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• Kent mussels tested for plastic contamination

  09-10-2017 02:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Almost two thirds of mussels in the sea around Kent are contaminated with plastic particles, research has shown.
  
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• Blue sky thinking

  09-10-2017 01:08 via bbc.co.uk
  British scientists played a key role in developing radar, which has helped deliver safer skies.
  
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• Three quarters of councils collect general waste once a fortnight

  09-10-2017 01:01 via theguardian.com
  With pressure to boost recycling and cut costs, landfill waste in England is collected less frequently – with six councils collecting it once in three weeksMore than three quarters of English councils now pick up household rubbish which cannot be recycled or composted just once a fortnight, a survey reveals.With councils under pressure to boost recycling and cut costs, some have gone further, with six local authorities picking up residual household waste only once every three weeks. Contin
  
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• NSW to approve coalmine blocked by courts for polluting Sydney's drinking water

  09-10-2017 00:29 via theguardian.com
  State energy minister Don Harwin says mine which supplies Lithgow’s Mount Piper power station is ‘vital for energy security and affordability’The New South Wales government will introduce legislation to approve an underground coal mine that was blocked by the courts because it was polluting Sydney’s drinking water.On Monday the state’s energy minister, Don Harwin, announced the government would overturn a decision by the NSW court of appeal to block the extension of
  
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