Environment news

• Failure to act now on energy policy will just trigger Groundhog Day | Katharine Murphy

  13-10-2017 23:00 via theguardian.com
  There are several good reasons to adopt the Finkel proposals – unless the Coalition just wants more zero sum bouts with LaborWhile politics never sleeps, and the verbiage from Canberra never stops, there has been a strange sense of suspended animation about the last couple of weeks, apart from a mild frenzy on Friday, as rumours circulated of early elections, cancelled parliamentary sittings, and general plague and pestilence.
  The reason for Friday’s startle reflex is, of course, the
  
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• Floating bin sucking up Portsmouth Harbour's rubbish

  13-10-2017 22:38 via bbc.co.uk
  The ‘Seabin’ can collect the equivalent of around 83,000 plastic bags a year.
  
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• Police show their true colours at fracking protest | Letters

  13-10-2017 19:18 via theguardian.com
  Green peer Jenny Jones says the police’s actions at a fracking protest show they are helping impose government policy and defending corporate interestsWhen the police forcibly remove a 79-year-old woman for serving refreshments to fracking protesters, you know they have taken sides (Report, 11 October). Having wasted their time and our money dragging pensioners around, the Lancashire constabulary has asked the Home Office for an extra £3.1m to cover the cost of drafting in police fro
  
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• Climate change masterplan, plastics and penguin troubles – green news roundup

  13-10-2017 17:45 via theguardian.com
  The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...
  
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• Penguins starving to death is a sign that something’s very wrong in the Antarctic | John Sauven

  13-10-2017 15:38 via theguardian.com
  Overfishing, oil drilling, pollution and climate change are imperilling the ecosystem. But ocean sanctuaries could help protect what belongs to us allThe awful news that all but two penguin chicks have starved to death out of a colony of almost 40,000 birds is a grim illustration of the enormous pressure Antarctic wildlife is under. The causes of this devastating event are complex, from a changing climate to local sea-ice factors, but one thing penguins, whales and other marine life don’t
  
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• Will the UK reach its carbon budget targets with the Clean Growth Strategy?

  13-10-2017 14:06
  The Government's long-awaited Clean Growth Strategy details more than 50 initiatives to decarbonise the UK economy in line with the fourth and fifth carbon budgets, but does the ambition have enough quantifiable targets in place to deliver?
  
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• Oxford plans to introduce world's first zero-emission zone

  13-10-2017 14:00
  Oxford has unveiled plans to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles from the city centre with an ultimate aim to deliver a zero-emission zone in 2035.
  
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• DNA study provides insight into how to live longer

  13-10-2017 13:59 via bbc.co.uk
  A year in school adds nearly a year to your life, study in Edinburgh shows.
  
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• UK-Dutch-built Sentinel launches to track air quality

  13-10-2017 13:06 via bbc.co.uk
  Sentinel-5P lifts off from Russia to make 20 million daily observations of pollution across the globe.
  
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• Nasa carbon space observatory 'watches Earth breathe'

  13-10-2017 13:01 via bbc.co.uk
  A US space agency satellite provides new insights on how CO2 is moved through Earth's atmosphere.
  
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• KPMG: Three quarters of businesses not recognising climate-related risks

  13-10-2017 12:39
  Despite investors ramping up the pressure on corporate disclosure of climate-related risk, nearly three-quarters of large and mid-cap companies don't acknowledge the financial risks of climate change in their annual financial reports.
  
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• KPMG: Three quarters of businesses not acknowledging climate-related risks

  13-10-2017 12:39
  Despite investors ramping up the pressure on the corporate disclosure of climate-related risks, nearly three quarters of large and mid-cap companies don't acknowledge the financial risks of climate change in their annual financial reports.
  
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• Penguins die in 'catastrophic' Antarctic breeding season

  13-10-2017 12:36 via bbc.co.uk
  Only two chicks survived in a colony of 36,000 in a "catastrophic" breeding season in east Antarctica.
  
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• The offset shop: Gold Standard offers 'one click' access to carbon credits

  13-10-2017 09:12
  Businesses and public organisations have been given streamlined access to purchase carbon credits generated from impact projects across the globe "with one click", after the Gold Standard issued an online platform to purchase credits directly from its website.
  
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• ‘It could have been Mexico’: the joy of whale-watching in Yorkshire

  13-10-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  It may not be known for it, but England’s north-eastern coast offers marine experiences than can compete with those in far more exotic locationsI was telling a Londoner recently about the North Yorkshire coast. “I really must go one day,” she said, sounding unconvinced. “But we’ve already booked for Mexico next year – we’re going whale-watching.”I had already sold my home county’s charms long enough, so I decided against landing another kille
  
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• Country diary:

  13-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Langstone, Hampshire There’s no mistaking its sewing-machine stridulation, but the great green bush-cricket is fiendishly difficult to locateSpeckled bush-crickets (Leptophyes punctatissima) are prolific in my garden. The nymphs hatch in May and I often spot them sunning themselves on bramble or nettle leaves. During the summer they become rather elusive, moving deeper and higher into the vegetation. But come autumn the humpbacked, spindly-legged, adults reappear.Attracted to light they of
  
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• Scraping out the London sewers by hand

  13-10-2017 06:25 via bbc.co.uk
  Fitted with a body camera, a sewer engineer tries to remove a blockage.
  
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• Australia lagging on electric cars and tax breaks needed to drive demand – report

  13-10-2017 05:03 via theguardian.com
  Australia Institute wants free access to bus lanes after electric cars accounted for just 0.1% of new car sales in 2015Tax breaks and free access to bus lanes should be used to help reverse Australia’s poor uptake of electric vehicles, a new report has said. Australians remain deeply reluctant to buy electric cars, which accounted for just 0.1% of new car sales in 2015. Australia is increasingly falling behind other countries, particularly in Europe, where sales of electric cars represente
  
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• UK-built Sentinel satellite to track air pollution

  13-10-2017 04:05 via bbc.co.uk
  A UK-assembled satellite is set to go into orbit shortly to monitor air quality around the globe.
  
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• Penguin disaster as just two chicks survive from colony of 40,000

  13-10-2017 03:22 via theguardian.com
  ‘Catastrophic breeding event’ leads to demands for a marine protected area to be set up in East AntarcticaA colony of about 40,000 Adélie penguins in Antarctica has suffered a “catastrophic breeding event” – all but two chicks have died of starvation this year. It is the second time in just four years that such devastation – not previously seen in more than 50 years of observation – has been wrought on the population.The finding has prompted urgen
  
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• Quantum internet

  13-10-2017 03:01 via bbc.co.uk
  What will it take to build the ultra-fast internet of the future?
  
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• How do you build the next-generation internet?

  13-10-2017 03:01 via bbc.co.uk
  What will it take to build the ultra-fast internet of the future?
  
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• Crab-shell 'plastics' and Seabins: the best green innovations of the week

  13-10-2017 02:01
  In a week where the UK set out its policies to meet future carbon budgets, edie rounds up the low-carbon and resource-efficient innovations that could emerge to help the ambition.
  
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• Chevron abandons plan to drill for oil in Great Australian Bight

  13-10-2017 01:31 via theguardian.com
  Environmentalists hail decision that comes almost exactly a year after BP ditched its own scheme for the untapped basinChevron has become the second big oil company to abandon plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight, almost exactly a year after BP ditched its more advanced plans for the untapped basin.Oil companies have compared the potential of the bight to the Gulf of Mexico, where there are thousands of oil rigs. Continue reading...
  
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