Environment news

• National energy guarantee is ‘innovative’, says Bloomberg analysis

  20-10-2017 23:36 via theguardian.com
  Bloomberg New Energy Finance says proposed guarantee could be ‘template for policy makers worldwide’The Turnbull government’s proposed national energy guarantee has been given enthusiastic support by the renewable energy analysis firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which has described the concept as “innovative and elegant” and said it could be “a template for policy makers worldwide”.Earlier this week Malcolm Turnbull persuaded the Coalition to support a
  
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• At least for once, don't let politicking kill off a workable energy policy | Katharine Murphy

  20-10-2017 23:00 via theguardian.com
  Although not perfect, Turnbull’s national energy guarantee does have its merits. But can it get past all the usual muck?Just for a moment, we are going to wind the clock back to 2009. Confronted by repeated requests from Kevin Rudd’s office to go hard against the then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull over climate change, the then junior climate change minister Greg Combet asked a sensible question.Combet recalls in his memoir, The Fights of My Life, that he asked Rudd and the offic
  
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• Logged Tropical Rainforests Still Support Biodiversity Even When the Heat Is On

  20-10-2017 21:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tropical rainforests continue to buffer wildlife from extreme temperatures even after logging, a new study has revealed.
  
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• NASA-NOAA Satellite Sees Typhoon Lan's 50 Nautical-Mile Wide Eye

  20-10-2017 21:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite passed overhead and captured an image of Typhoon Lan in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and saw a well-organized storm with a clear eye that was 50 nautical miles in diameter.
  
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• U.S. Ocean Observation Critical to Understanding Climate Change, But Lacks Long-Term National Planning

  20-10-2017 21:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  The ocean plays a critical role in climate and weather, serving as a massive reservoir of heat and water that influences tropical storms, El Nin~o, and climate change.  In addition, the ocean has absorbed 30 percent of the carbon dioxide associated with human activities, lessening the climate effects of fossil fuel combustion. 
  
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• Research Predicts Increase in Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Developing World

  20-10-2017 21:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  For the last century, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been a challenge for patients and the medical community in the western world. New research published today in The Lancet by Dr. Gilaad Kaplan shows that countries outside the western world may now be facing the same pattern of increasing IBD rates.
  
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• "Antelope Perfume" Keeps Flies Away From Cows

  20-10-2017 20:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  In Africa, tsetse flies transfer the sleeping sickness also to cattle. This leads to huge losses in milk, meat and manpower. The damage in Africa is estimated to be about 4.6 billion US dollars each year. Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister from the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn and his colleagues from Kenya and the UK have developed an innovative way of preventing the disease. The scientists took advantage of the fact that tsetse flies avoid waterbucks, a widespre
  
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• Global CO2 Emissions Stalled for the Third Year in a Row

  20-10-2017 20:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  The annual assessment of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the JRC and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) confirms that CO2 emissions have stalled for the third year in a row.
  
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• NASA Sees a New Depression Form After Another Fizzled

  20-10-2017 20:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Northwestern Pacific Ocean generated another tropical depression hours after a different system quickly faded. NASA’s Aqua satellite provided a look at Tropical Depression 27W after it developed about 300 miles from Chuuk. Earlier in the day, Tropical Depression 26W dissipated in the South China Sea.
  
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• Cool Roofs Have Water Saving Benefits Too

  20-10-2017 20:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  The energy and climate benefits of cool roofs have been well established: By reflecting rather than absorbing the sun’s energy, light-colored roofs keep buildings, cities, and even the entire planet cooler. Now a new study by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has found that cool roofs can also save water by reducing how much is needed for urban irrigation.
  
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• Monitoring and mitigating mercury

  20-10-2017 20:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  Dispersal of mercury into the air has risen substantially since the industrial revolution, leading to increased mercury deposits in water and soil. Once there, it gets transformed by bacteria into methylmercury, a highly toxic form of the naturally-occurring heavy metal that can affect neurological and immune systems. Stored in the tissues of wildlife and humans, methylmercury concentrations are magnified with each step up the food chain. The mercury levels of a large predator fish such as
  
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• Pollution linked to nine million deaths worldwide in 2015, equivalent to 1 in 6 deaths

  20-10-2017 20:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  Pollution is linked to an estimated nine million deaths each year worldwide – equivalent to one in six (16%) of all deaths, according to a major new report in The Lancet. Most of these deaths are due to non-communicable diseases caused by pollution such as heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
  
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• Encouraging insects back into arable land | Letters

  20-10-2017 19:35 via theguardian.com
  In Sussex scientists have found that insecticide use has stabilised over the past two decades with an associated stabilisation of some insect groups, write Dr Julie Ewald and Prof John Holland of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. Plus Judith Wright says we should let verges growIt is with great interest that we read about the long-term decline in the biomass of flying insects on German protected areas (Scientists tell of alarm at huge fall in flying insects, 19 October).The Game &
  
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• Pollution hot spots around the world

  20-10-2017 18:37 via bbc.co.uk
  What's it like to live somewhere like Beijing, where you can even see pollution with the naked eye?
  
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• Insectageddon, fatal pollution and 2017 Wildlife Photographer winners – green news roundup

  20-10-2017 17:54 via theguardian.com
  The week’s top environment news stories and green events Continue reading...
  
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• UK may consider electric vehicle subsidy to increase cycling

  20-10-2017 16:28 via theguardian.com
  Roads minister Jesse Norman says government could push councils to do more to fight pollution and inactive livingThe UK government could potentially consider providing subsidies for electric bicycles and electric cars as part of a concerted policy effort to get more people cycling, the roads minister, Jesse Norman, has said.With the UK facing health crises from pollution and inactive living, other plans could include using electric cargo bikes to deliver packages from internet retailers rather t
  
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• NOAA, NASA team up again to investigate the atmosphere over Antarctica

  20-10-2017 15:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  Thirty years after NASA and NOAA launched a groundbreaking airborne campaign to study the Antarctic ozone hole, the two federal science agencies have once again joined forces over the world’s highest, driest and coldest continent to sniff out the secrets of the atmosphere.On Oct. 14, NASA’s heavily instrumented DC-8 flew over Antarctica as part of the Atmospheric Tomography Mission or ATom, an unprecedented effort to sample the remote atmosphere to understand the distribution of man-
  
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• University of Toronto biologists discover an epigenetic key to unlock behavioural change in fruit flies

  20-10-2017 15:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  When it comes to behaviour, researchers have moved beyond the “nature versus nurture” debate. It’s understood that genes and environment both play a role. However, how they interact at a molecular level to shape behaviour is still unclear.A new study led by scientists at the University of Toronto sheds valuable light on this relationship. The paper, published in  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, reveals how epigenetics &ndash
  
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• Puppy dog eyes are for human benefit, say scientists

  20-10-2017 13:59 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers investigate how dogs change their expressions in response to their owners.
  
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• Pollution racks up 9 million deaths a year worldwide

  20-10-2017 13:17
  Pollution causes 9 million deaths around the world every year, according to a landmark new study which found that one in six of all deaths are linked to polluted air, water and soil.
  
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• Insectageddon: farming is more catastrophic than climate breakdown | George Monbiot

  20-10-2017 13:11 via theguardian.com
  The shocking collapse of insect populations hints at a global ecological meltdownWhich of these would you name as the world’s most pressing environmental issue? Climate breakdown, air pollution, water loss, plastic waste or urban expansion? My answer is none of the above. Almost incredibly, I believe that climate breakdown takes third place, behind two issues that receive only a fraction of the attention. Related: Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbersCo
  
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• Storm Brian thunders towards south coast of England

  20-10-2017 12:52 via theguardian.com
  Met Office issues yellow warnings for wind across southern and western coast of England from Saturday morningBritain is braced for Brian, the second named storm of the season, which is forecast to bring 70mph winds and heavy rain that could cause coastal flooding in the south of England on Saturday.The Met Office has issued yellow warnings for wind across the whole of the southern and western coast of England from 4am on Saturday, with south-western areas expected to be among the worst affected.
  
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• Land of milk and money: Qatar looks to farms to beat the Gulf boycott

  20-10-2017 12:30 via theguardian.com
  Emirate’s drive for food security is symbolic of its determination to make efforts to isolate it ‘a blessing inside a calamity’John Dore is off to Doha’s vast and luxurious Hamad International airport to greet the 8pm flight from Los Angeles via Liège, Belgium.Wearing a straw hat with a small metal shamrock badge in homage to his Irish roots, his imminent visitors are neither family nor friends. Nor are they human at all, but rather a herd of 120 cows. Continue rea
  
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• Colombia vets nurse tiny spider monkey back to health

  20-10-2017 12:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Vets in Colombia are nursing a tiny spider monkey back to health.
  
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• Utility giant acquires off-grid solar specialists Fenix International

  20-10-2017 11:31
  French utility giant ENGIE is continuing its transition away from fossil fuels, after announcing the acquisition of a next generation energy company that offers decentralised solar solutions to communities across Africa.
  
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• Target commits to 100% renewables as part of science-based targets approach

  20-10-2017 10:52
  Clothing giant Target has unveiled a revamped climate policy that will see the retailer commit to the Science-Based Targets Initiative to reduce emissions by 25% and source 100% renewable electricity "in the coming years".
  
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• Litter-picking crows and solar farms in a box: the best green innovations of the week

  20-10-2017 10:00
  In a week of innovative announcements for the UK green economy, edie rounds up the low-carbon and resource-efficient innovations that could shape the future.
  
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• Delhi covered in toxic haze after night of Diwali fireworks

  20-10-2017 09:21 via theguardian.com
  Air pollution in Indian capital hits 18 times the healthy limit despite supreme court ban on sale of firecrackersAir pollution in Delhi has hit 18 times the healthy limit and left the city under a thick, toxic haze after Diwali was celebrated with a night of fireworks – despite a court-ordered ban on their sales. Residents of the Indian capital, which already ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, complained of watering eyes and aggravated coughs as levels of PM2.5, ultra-fine
  
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• Country diary: stalking red deer on the fringes of the city

  20-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Big Moor, Derbyshire The stag ignores the passing lorries but isn’t ready for a photographic closeupRunning south from the old Barbrook reservoir, I found myself struggling against the strong south-westerly that had kept temperatures unusually high for several days and delayed wintering thrushes returning to the moors. The arrival of fieldfares and redwings is always sparkling compensation for the gloomy approach of winter but I would have to wait a little longer. At least the sun was out,
  
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• Turnbull predicts states will sign up to national energy guarantee

  20-10-2017 02:09 via theguardian.com
  PM says Australians are ‘sick of the climate wars’ and want governments to work together Malcolm Turnbull has predicted the states will ultimately sign up to the national energy guarantee because Australians are “sick of the climate wars”.
  Despite the fact several states are clearly hostile, with the South Australian premier leading the public charge and declaring that federal Labor should also resist the proposal, Turnbull told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell on Friday he shou
  
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• Tell your pollution story – in pictures

  20-10-2017 00:33 via theguardian.com
  National Geographic’s #TellYourPollutionStory asks readers to share their images to shed light on new evidence that pollution – air, water, soil and workplace – is the leading cause of death in the worldContinue reading...
  
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• Global pollution kills millions and threatens 'survival of human societies'

  20-10-2017 00:30 via theguardian.com
  Landmark study finds toxic air, water, soils and workplaces kill at least 9m people and cost trillions of dollars every yearPollution kills at least nine million people and costs trillions of dollars every year, according to the most comprehensive global analysis to date, which warns the crisis “threatens the continuing survival of human societies”.Toxic air, water, soils and workplaces are responsible for the diseases that kill one in every six people around the world, the landmark
  
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• Global pollution kills 9m a year and threatens 'survival of human societies'

  20-10-2017 00:30 via theguardian.com
  Landmark study finds toxic air, water, soils and workplaces kill at least 9m people and cost trillions of dollars every yearPollution kills at least nine million people and costs trillions of dollars every year, according to the most comprehensive global analysis to date, which warns the crisis “threatens the continuing survival of human societies”.Toxic air, water, soils and workplaces are responsible for the diseases that kill one in every six people around the world, the landmark
  
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• British birds evolve bigger beaks to use garden feeders

  20-10-2017 00:08 via theguardian.com
  Researchers say UK’s enthusiasm for bird feeders compared with mainland Europe responsible for increase in beak lengthThe reason some birds in Britain have evolved bigger beaks over the past 40 years may be down to the country’s enthusiasm for feeding them in their gardens, researchers have said.The report published on Thursday in the US journal Science compared beak length among great tits in Britain and the Netherlands, where bird feeders are less common. Continue reading...
  
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