Environment news

• UAH graduate student uncovers link between forest fire smoke, pollution events

  17-10-2017 23:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  Smoke from forest fires might contribute to more than half of certain gritty air pollution events in the continental U.S. during the summer, and as much as 20 percent of those events throughout the year, according to new research at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).
  
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• Snack attack: alligators like to eat sharks, study reveals

  17-10-2017 23:20 via theguardian.com
  Researchers find alligators preying on small sharks in Atlantic and Gulf‘The frequency of one predator eating the other is really about size dynamic’American alligators are frequently seen ambling around golf courses in Florida as players warily compete their rounds. But new research suggests the reptiles partake in a far more outlandish habit when away from the greens – eating sharks. Related: ‘I don’t want to imagine a world without giant snakes in it’Contin
  
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• Study reshapes understanding of climate change's impact on early societies

  17-10-2017 21:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new study linking paleoclimatology — the reconstruction of past global climates — with historical analysis by researchers at Yale and other institutions shows a link between environmental stress and its impact on the economy, political stability, and war-fighting capacity of ancient Egypt.The team of researchers examined the hydroclimatic and societal impacts in Egypt of a sequence of tropical and high-latitude volcanic eruptions spanning the past 2,500 years, as known from modern
  
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• A New Way to Harness Wasted Methane

  17-10-2017 18:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Methane gas, a vast natural resource, is often disposed of through burning, but new research by scientists at MIT could make it easier to capture this gas for use as fuel or a chemical feedstock.
  
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• Crashing Neutron Stars Observed for the First Time

  17-10-2017 18:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  An international research team, including physicists from the Weizmann Institute of Science, has for the first time succeeded in observing a merger of two colliding neutron stars. The merger was simultaneously picked up by three detectors built for this purpose: the two belonging to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, in the United States, and the Virgo detector in Italy. The observation may help determine how such heavy elements as uranium, iodine an
  
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• Volcanic Eruptions Linked to Social Unrest in Ancient Egypt

  17-10-2017 18:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  Around 245 BCE Ptolemy III, ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt, made a decision that still puzzles many historians: After pursuing a successful military campaign against the kingdom’s nemesis, the Seleucid Empire, centred mainly in present-day Syria and Iraq, the king suddenly decided to return home. This about-face “changed everything about Near-East history,” says Joseph Manning, a historian at Yale University.
  
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• Study Shows How Water Could Have Flowed on 'Cold and Icy' Ancient Mars

  17-10-2017 18:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  For scientists trying to understand what ancient Mars might have been like, the red planet sends some mixed signals. Water-carved valleys and lakebeds leave little doubt that water once flowed on the surface. But climate models for early Mars suggest average temperatures around the globe stayed well below freezing.
  
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• How Bees Find Their Way Home

  17-10-2017 18:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  How can a bee fly straight home in the middle of the night after a complicated route through thick vegetation in search of food? For the first time, researchers have been able to show what happens in the brain of the bee.
  
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• Winds have generated power for centuries | Brief letters

  17-10-2017 18:17 via theguardian.com
  Walsall’s heyday | Wind power | Elon Musk’s Hyperloop | Today programme | Worst deal ever“Walsall was never a pretty town”, according to Roy Boffy (Letters, 16 October); this may be true now but has not always been the case. Its handsome villas and public buildings were remarked on in 1834 by William White in The History, Gazeteer and Directory of Staffordshire and he believed it needed to yield to no other town in Staffordshire in beauty and elegance. During the 19th cen
  
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• Rivers Carry Plastic Debris Into The Sea

  17-10-2017 18:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic debris ends up in the sea - a global environmental problem with unforeseeable ecological consequences. The path taken by plastic to reach the sea must be elucidated before it will be possible to reduce the volume of plastic input. To date, there was only little information available on this. It has now been followed up by an interdisciplinary research team who were able to show that plastic debris is primarily carried into the sea by large rivers.
  
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• UK withdrawal bill 'rips the heart out of environmental law', say campaigners

  17-10-2017 15:24 via theguardian.com
  New bill omits key ‘precautionary’ principle requiring developers and industry to prove actions will not harm wildlife or habitats as well as ‘polluter pays’ protectionsInteractive: How will Brexit affect British wildlife?The cornerstones of wildlife and habitat protection have been quietly left out of the withdrawal bill ripping the heart out of environmental law, campaigners say.
  A key principle under EU law which provides a robust legal backstop against destruction of
  
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• NOAA observing buoys validate findings from NASA's new satellite for measuring carbon dioxide

  17-10-2017 15:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  The strong El Niño event of 2015-2016 provided NASA and NOAA an unprecedented opportunity to test the effectiveness of the newest observation tool to measure global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations -- NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite or OCO-2.Observations of carbon dioxide concentrations over the tropical Pacific from the satellite were validated by data from NOAA’s Tropical Pacific Observing System of buoys, which directly measure carbon dioxide concent
  
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• New biomass plant to cut Simon Fraser University's greenhouse gases by two-thirds

  17-10-2017 15:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new project at Simon Fraser University (SFU) will soon divert wood waste from the landfill and help reduce greenhouse gasses at the University.SFU and SFU Community Trust are collaborating with Corix Multi-Utility Services Inc., on a $33-million community-based biomass project called the Burnaby Mountain District Energy Utility (BMDEU).
  
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• Greenpeace: Tech giants neglecting environmental responsibility

  17-10-2017 13:48
  Some of the world's biggest tech firms are failing to show ambition in their efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of their supply chains, according to Greenpeace, which claims the current model cannot be maintained.
  
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• Regreening the planet could cut as much carbon as halting oil use – report

  17-10-2017 13:22 via theguardian.com
  Natural solutions such as tree planting, protecting peatlands and better land management could account for 37% of all cuts needed by 2030, says study
  Planting forests and other activities that harness the power of nature could play a major role in limiting global warming under the 2015 Paris agreement, an international study showed on Monday. Natural climate solutions, also including protection of carbon-storing peatlands and better management of soils and grasslands, could account for 37% of al
  
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• Rabobank launches $1bn programme for food production practices

  17-10-2017 13:10
  Dutch cooperative financial firm Rabobank has partnered with the UN Environment to promote sustainable food supply across the globe, starting with the launch of a $1bn fund to catalyse land restoration and forestry initiatives.
  
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• Greenpeace: Tech giants neglecting environmental duties

  17-10-2017 13:10
  Some of the world's biggest tech firms are failing to show ambition in their efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of their supply chains, according to Greenpeace, which claims the current model cannot be maintained.
  
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• How can we exploit new methods to tackle consumer food waste in a digital age?

  17-10-2017 10:07
  Technological advances and social media are set to become increasingly powerful tools in helping retailers and environmental organisations to engage consumers on food waste reduction.
  
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• Higher carbon price needed to phase out UK coal generation by 2025

  17-10-2017 09:15
  Following plans with Canada to launch global alliance to encourage nations to phase-out coal use, the UK Government has been informed that a carbon price of £40 per tonne may be required to shut down all remaining coal plants by 2025.
  
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• Malcolm Turnbull convinces party to unite on energy policy

  17-10-2017 08:41 via theguardian.com
  Prime minister wins party room backing despite Tony Abbott bid for delay, but policy may be resisted by statesMalcolm Turnbull has secured party room backing to impose new reliability and emissions reduction guarantees on energy retailers and large energy users from 2020.But the emissions reduction trajectory, the most internally sensitive component of the reform, will require new legislation, and the government has been advised to implement the new scheme with the support of state governments p
  
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• Country diary: sycamores create painterly clumps of colour and shade

  17-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Cressbrook Dale, Derbyshire These often despised trees took centuries to go native but today they are a welcome addition to the autumn atmosphere – especially in the rainI find it strange to read in Oliver Rackham’s wonderful Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape that sycamores were probably introduced to the UK in the 16th century, but only went native in the 18th. It seems odd, because it is hard to imagine this restless beast of a tree settling for domestic imprisonment for
  
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• Frydenberg seeks review of four-wheel-drive tracks in Tasmania's Tarkine

  17-10-2017 04:29 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists and Indigenous groups hail decision to examine plan to lay rubber matting over middens and heritage sitesThe federal government has requested an independent assessment of an application to open four-wheel-drive tracks along Tasmania’s heritage-listed north-west coast, potentially delaying action until the state election.Conservationists and Indigenous groups have been fighting the Hodgman government’s proposal to lay rubber matting over middens and other Aboriginal h
  
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• Remains found in crocodile believed to be missing Queensland woman

  17-10-2017 04:27 via theguardian.com
  Anne Cameron’s remains and walking stick found at Craiglie Creek, south of Port Douglas, after 79-year-old went missing from her aged-care facilityHuman remains have been found inside a large crocodile police believe killed an elderly woman in Queensland’s far north.Remains believed to belong to Anne Cameron, her walking stick and other items were located at Craiglie Creek, south of Port Douglas, last week. Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian Essential Report, 17 October results

  17-10-2017 03:27 via theguardian.com
  This report summarises the results of a weekly poll conducted by Essential Research with data provided by Your Source. Some questions are repeated regularly (such as political preference and leadership approval), while others are unique to each week and reflect current media and social issues Continue reading...
  
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• Malcolm Turnbull is playing a losing hand on energy policy | Peter Lewis

  17-10-2017 00:14 via theguardian.com
  There are four main reasons why the government’s latest energy policy will not go down well with the publicRight now, Malcolm Turnbull is giving his best impression of a poker player about to table a royal flush, but this week’s Essential Report suggests that he’s actually playing a losing hand when it comes to energy policy.It says much about the game the prime minister’s been playing over recent months that he appears to be overjoyed with the cards he’s picked up
  
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• Study suggests oysters offer hot spot for reducing nutrient pollution

  17-10-2017 00:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  When it comes to oysters and their role in reducing nutrient pollution, a new study by researchers at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science gets right to the guts—and the shell—of the matter.
  
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