Environment news

• 'Wing Prints' May Identify Individual Bats as Effectively as Fingerprints Identify People

  24-10-2017 23:51 via feedproxy.google.com
  Research by a USDA Forest Service scientist and her partners may solve a longtime problem in bat research by demonstrating that bats’ wings are as reliable a method of identifying individual bats as fingerprints are for human beings.
  
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• NASA Examines Heavy Rainfall Generated by Former Typhoon Lan

  24-10-2017 23:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  When Typhoon Lan made landfall in Japan on Oct. 22, the Global Precipitation Measurement mission core satellite or GPM analyzed the storm and added up the high rainfall that it generated. By Oct. 24, Extra-tropical cyclone Lan moved east into the Bering Sea and generated storm warnings.
  
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• WHOI Led Research Team Receives Funding to Develop Ocean Temperature Forecast System

  24-10-2017 23:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) was awarded a competive federal grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to develop a forecast system that will predict seasonal and year-to-year changes in ocean temperatures on the Northeast U.S. Shelf. Other institutions involved in this project include Stony Brook University (SBU) and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) in Woods Hole.
  
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• Forests minimize severe heat waves

  24-10-2017 23:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  Extensive, mature forest cover can mitigate the impact of severe heat waves, droughts and other weather extremes over large regions, according to new NOAA research published online in the journal Nature Communications.
  
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• Labor calls Australian Workers' Union raids 'an abuse of power' – politics live

  24-10-2017 23:17 via theguardian.com
  The AWU will go to court in a bid to take back documents seized in the AFP raids as Turnbull calls Labor’s response an ‘hysterical attack’. Follow the day’s events live 10.17pm BSTBill Shorten has extended his condolences to Linda Burney and her family.“Yesterday, her son passed away. A dearly loved, 33-year-old son, of Linda Burney. I can’t imagine what it is like as a parent to lose your child. I know how much her son loved Linda and how much Linda loved her
  
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• Researchers Introduce New Method for Monitoring Indian Summer Monsoon

  24-10-2017 23:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers from Florida State University have created a tool for objectively defining the onset and demise of the Indian Summer Monsoon — a colossal weather system that affects billions of people annually.
  
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• Weatherwatch: piano notes key to Victorian inventor's foghorn

  24-10-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Robert Foulis took inspiration from the unmuffled quality of bass notes passing through fog to devise a steam-run, dramatically low-note, lighthouse whistleOn 22 October 1854 the New Brunswick Morning News described a new life-saving invention: the steam whistle fog alarm. A chain of lighthouses was safeguarding shipping off the Canadian coast but in foggy conditions their lights were invisible. Fog bells could not be heard at long distances, and cannon signals were expensive and labour intensiv
  
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• Nitrous oxide emissions may get worse as climate warms

  24-10-2017 21:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  New research from the University of Minnesota, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,  shows nitrous oxide emissions, a greenhouse gas, may get worse as the climate warms.
  
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• Global wine production predicted to slump to 50-year low

  24-10-2017 20:57 via theguardian.com
  Wine producers’ body warns production will fall after Italy, France and Spain were hit by freak weather events in 2017If you haven’t got a wine cellar, it’s time to get one and start stockpiling – because global wine production is to fall to its lowest level in more than 50 years.On Tuesday the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said it expected an 8% decrease in global wine production to 247m hectolitres for 2017.Continue reading...
  
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• I’ve got an old car and a wood burner – so my reputation’s going up in smoke | Tim Dowling

  24-10-2017 20:06 via theguardian.com
  My Mini Mayfair is so old that it’s subject to the new emissions charge. I thought the stove was safe though. Some hopeOur old car has probably taken its last trip into central London. I haven’t driven it into the middle of town for two years, and that was before this week’s introduction of a £10 emissions charge for older vehicles, on top of the £11.50 congestion charge. Suddenly £21.50 seems a lot to pay for the privilege of driving a 1980s Mini Mayfair in M
  
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• BBC apologises over interview with climate sceptic Lord Lawson

  24-10-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Lawson’s claim that global temperatures are not rising went unchallenged, breaching guidelines on accuracy and impartialityThe BBC has apologised for an interview with the climate sceptic Lord Lawson after admitting it had breached its own editorial guidelines for allowing him to claim that global temperatures have not risen in the past decade.BBC Radio 4’s flagship news programme Today ran the item in August in which Lawson, interviewed by presenter Justin Webb, made the
  
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• BBC apologises over interview with climate denier Lord Lawson

  24-10-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Lawson’s claim that global temperatures are not rising went unchallenged, breaching guidelines on accuracy and impartialityThe BBC has apologised for an interview with the climate change denier Lord Lawson after admitting it had breached its own editorial guidelines for allowing him to claim that global temperatures have not risen in the past decade.BBC Radio 4’s flagship news programme Today ran the item in August in which Lawson, interviewed by presenter Justin Webb, mad
  
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• Expanding Brazilian sugarcane could dent global CO2 emissions

  24-10-2017 18:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  Vastly expanding sugarcane production in Brazil for conversion to ethanol could reduce current global carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 5.6 percent, researchers report in the journal Nature Climate Change.
  
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• Paul Weitz: Skylab and shuttle astronaut dies aged 85

  24-10-2017 17:51 via bbc.co.uk
  US astronaut Paul Weitz, who helped save a Nasa space station after it was damaged during launch, has died aged 85.
  
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• Elephant poaching drops in Africa but populations continue to fall

  24-10-2017 17:50 via theguardian.com
  New report also reveals rise in large-scale illegal ivory shipments which could be due to panic sell-off by traffickers as countries implement domestic bansElephant poaching in Africa has declined for the fifth year in a row, experts have said. But elephant populations continue to fall due to illegal killing and other human activities, while seizures of large-scale illegal ivory shipments were at record highs in 2016, a new report reveals. Continue reading...
  
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• Expect bigger but fewer Halloween pumpkins after wet summer, say UK farmers

  24-10-2017 17:43 via theguardian.com
  Major producers report rot in fields due to rainfall but bursts of sunshine have led to larger than average pumpkinsShoppers can expect fewer but bigger pumpkins on sale in the run-up to Halloween as a result of the UK’s wet summer, farmers and producers have warned.The weather has squeezed supplies of the seasonal favourite, with major growers reporting “significant levels of rot” which have led to thousands being left to turn to pulp in the fields rather than heading for the
  
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• Food ruined by drought could feed more than 80m a day, says World Bank

  24-10-2017 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Bank calls for water to be treated as valuable resource as study into impact details lack of water’s devastating lifelong scars on children
  The food produce destroyed by droughts would be enough to feed a country with a population the size of Germany’s every day for a year, the World Bank has reported.In a new study, it said, the “shockingly large and often hidden” consequences of prolonged periods without rain threatened to stunt the growth of children and condemn them t
  
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• Catalan human towers and painted horses: best photos of the day

  24-10-2017 14:24 via theguardian.com
  The Guardian’s picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world, including a huge flower exhibition in Thailand, water cannon in Jerusalem and animal selfies in Western Australia Continue reading...
  
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• Best photos of the day: Catalan human towers and painted horses

  24-10-2017 14:24 via theguardian.com
  The Guardian’s picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world, including a huge flower exhibition in Thailand, water cannons in Jerusalem and animal selfies in Western Australia Continue reading...
  
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• The terrible truth about your tin of Italian tomatoes

  24-10-2017 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Court documents reveal that fruit from two food giants on UK supermarket shelves was picked by workers in southern Italy under ‘conditions of absolute exploitation’
  Two of Italy’s biggest food companies have been implicated in labour abuses of migrant workers picking tomatoes bought by thousands of British and European consumers every week, according to court documents.Italian prosecutor Paola Guglielmi has named food giants Mutti and Conserve Italia as benefiting from “c
  
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• Pan-industry alliance set to champion smart energy era

  24-10-2017 13:39
  As a new report names Bristol and London the leaders of the smart city transition, leading UK energy organisations such as the National Grid and the Renewable Energy Association (REA) have launched a pan-industry campaign to create a smart energy pathway for technology and services.
  
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• UK is 30-40 years away from 'eradication of soil fertility', warns Gove

  24-10-2017 13:04 via theguardian.com
  Farmers must be incentivised to tackle decline in biodiversity, says environment secretary at launch of parliamentary soil body The UK is 30 to 40 years away from “the fundamental eradication of soil fertility” in parts of the country, the environment secretary Michael Gove has warned.“We have encouraged a type of farming which has damaged the earth,” Gove told the parliamentary launch of the Sustainable Soils Alliance (SSA). “Countries can withstand coups d’&
  
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• Peas Please: PwC commits to boost employee fruit and veg intake

  24-10-2017 12:43
  PwC has become the first professional services firm to make a pledge to increase the amount of fruit and veg eaten by employees, a move which it hopes will create a healthier and more sustainable workplace.
  
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• Climate change minister pledges to 'break the deadlock' on CCS

  24-10-2017 11:40
  Climate change minister Claire Perry is convening a taskforce next month to deliver carbon capture and storage plants more cost effectively.
  
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• CDP: Science-based targets needed to 'pick up the pace' on corporate action

  24-10-2017 10:15
  Emissions targets from large corporates are around one-third of the way to bringing the private sector on a trajectory to keep global warming below 2C, highlighting the need for more science-based targets, new analysis from CDP has found.
  
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• Di Natale tells Acoss conference unions should be politically independent

  24-10-2017 10:14 via theguardian.com
  Greens leader says ‘dedicating resources to robocalling constituents’ does little to advance workers’ interestsRichard Di Natale has criticised the union movement for “robocalling constituents” and said unions were strongest when they were independent of “one side of politics or another”.The comments were made at the end of a speech at the Australian Council of Social Services conference in Melbourne on Tuesday. Asked how he saw the union movement surviv
  
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• Dissident Coalition MPs push for earlier end to renewable energy subsidies

  24-10-2017 09:33 via theguardian.com
  Tony Abbott, Craig Kelly and Matt Canavan argue government should cut off support to some renewable investments in 2020Dissident government MPs, including the former prime minister Tony Abbott, are continuing to stir the pot on energy despite last week’s party room sign off on the new national energy guarantee.
  The chairman of the backbench committee on environment and energy, Craig Kelly, used Tuesday’s party room meeting to argue the government should cut off support to some renewa
  
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• ‘Like running a marathon – with 100 sharks on your tail’: behind the scenes of Blue Planet II

  24-10-2017 09:20 via theguardian.com
  Cannibal squid, submarine leaks at 450 metres and a poisonous stonefish sting … the producers of David Attenborough’s new series share stories of life and death underwaterI’ve spent more than 500 hours in submersibles 1,000 metres under the sea – the maximum depth technology can take us. You can’t go to the toilet the whole time you’re down there, so you have to hold it for 10 hours. The comms come and go, too. You’d always rather be in constant radio c
  
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• Cross-sector collaboration crucial to embed technological innovations, says Vodafone

  24-10-2017 09:15
  The fourth industrial revolution looks set to introduce an era of technological disruption that will heighten the need for a "strong political hand" and enhanced cross-sector collaboration to drive efficiencies, according to Vodafone's senior environment manager Nicki Woodhead.
  
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• EU on brink of historic decision on pervasive glyphosate weedkiller

  24-10-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Glyphosate is found in 60% of UK bread and environmentalists welcome a ban but industry warn of uproar among farmers if herbicide is phased outA pivotal EU vote this week could revoke the licence for the most widely used herbicide in human history, with fateful consequences for global agriculture and its regulation.Glyphosate is a weedkiller so pervasive that its residues were recently found in 45% of Europe’s topsoil – and in the urine of three quarters of Germans tested, at five ti
  
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• Astrolabe: Shipwreck find 'earliest navigation tool'

  24-10-2017 07:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Marine archaeologists say the object - discovered off the coast of Oman - is an astrolabe.
  
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• Country diary: the autumn run is a bruising experience for the fish

  24-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Hexham, Northumberland Driven by the urge to spawn in the valleys where they were born, salmon and sea trout catapult themselves through the spilling weirCrossing the wet road, I hurry past the agricultural merchant’s yard with its red machinery and silver trailers. The rain drums on my umbrella as I reach the trampled spot on the bank where I can look out over the Tyne. It’s this rain that’s made the river rise, triggering the autumn run of salmon and sea trout below Hexham&rs
  
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• Open thread: What is Australia's best bird? And what is the worst?

  24-10-2017 05:22 via theguardian.com
  Australia has more than 800 species of birds – and many more opinions about which one is the greatest. Share your favourite native bird in the commentsFootball codes, meat pies, potato cakes or scallops, Melbourne or Sydney, Holden or Ford. As a country Australians have quite a lot that divides us – but nothing, it seems, so much as birds.
  Are magpies beautiful, intelligent creatures maligned only because no one bothers to make friends with them or guilty of “violence against g
  
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• Malcolm Turnbull is not the smartest person in the room. Quite the opposite | Peter Lewis

  24-10-2017 03:50 via theguardian.com
  Two issues central to our prime minister’s personal brand conflict have dominated politics recently: marriage equality and climate changeOne of the current hits in the pod-sphere is a parody called “Dexter Guff is Smarter Than You”, a Spinal Tap-does-inspirational-thought-leader car crash of a production.
  Dexter is a “think-fluencer” who spends his time in his “thought palace” promoting his books and vitamin range, interviewing fellow hucksters about the
  
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• The Lion Man: An Ice Age masterpiece

  24-10-2017 03:30 via bbc.co.uk
  The story behind a small ivory sculpture that was carved 40,000 years ago.
  
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• Paris accord: US and Syria alone as Nicaragua signs

  24-10-2017 01:16 via bbc.co.uk
  Nicaragua signs the Paris agreement, leaving only two countries not supporting it.
  
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• Kea voted bird of the year in New Zealand – video

  24-10-2017 01:12 via theguardian.com
  New Zealanders were urged to 'vote kea' in a video campaign for the world's only alpine parrot, resulting in thousands more votes cast for the species than ​actual birds in existence. The nation's annual bird of the year competition hit new heights this year with more than 50,000 votes cast from around New Zealand and the world. Despite their protected status, keas have divided Kiwis between those who enjoy the cheeky parrot’s animated nature and those who curse its de
  
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• Nicaragua to join Paris climate accord, leaving US and Syria isolated

  24-10-2017 01:08 via theguardian.com
  Vice-president Rosario Murillo calls global pact ‘the only instrument we have’ to address climate change as number of outsiders shrinks to twoNicaragua is set to join the Paris climate agreement, according to an official statement and comments from the vice-president, Rosario Murillo, on Monday, in a move that leaves the United States and Syria as the only countries outside the global pact. Nicaragua has already presented the relevant documents at the United Nations, Murillo, who is
  
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• New Zealand bird of the year: playful alpine parrot kea soars to victory

  24-10-2017 00:56 via theguardian.com
  The world’s only mountain parrot whose cheeky antics divide Kiwis, beats kererū and kākāpō to coveted crown
  • New Zealand bird of the year leaderboard: check the pecking orderThe kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, has been crowned New Zealand bird of the year, with thousands more votes cast for the species than there are surviving individuals. New Zealand’s annual bird of the year competition hit new heights this year with more than 50,000 votes cast
  
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