Environment news

• Trump to shrink two national monuments following Zinke's proposal

  27-10-2017 23:41 via theguardian.com
  President will reverse protections established by two Democratic presidents on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante, sparking fury from environmentalistsDonald Trump is shrinking two national monuments in Utah, accepting the recommendation of interior secretary Ryan Zinke to reverse protections established by two Democratic presidents, a Republican senator said Friday. Related: National Park Service wants to sharply raise entry fees at most popular parksContinue reading...
  
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• New Research Findings Could Lead to Safer and More Powerful Lithium-Ion Batteries

  27-10-2017 22:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  Virginia Commonwealth University researchers are working to improve conductivity and safety in lithium-ion batteries, which are used to power many electronic devices around the world, including laptops, iPods, satellites, artificial hearts and cell phones.
  
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• Tropical Forest Reserves Slow Down Global Warming

  27-10-2017 22:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  National parks and nature reserves in South America, Africa and Asia, created to protect wildlife, heritage sites and the territory of indigenous people, are reducing carbon emissions from tropical deforestation by a third, and so are slowing the rate of global warming, a new study shows.
  
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• Peatland Plants Adapting Well to Climate Change, Suggests Study

  27-10-2017 22:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  They account for just three per cent of the Earth’s surface but play a major role in offsetting carbon dioxide emissions – and now a team of scientists led by the universities of Southampton and Utrecht has discovered that the plants that make up peat bogs adapt exceptionally well to climate change.
  
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• NASA Finds Winds Shear Still Affecting Tropical Storm Saola

  27-10-2017 22:11 via feedproxy.google.com
  NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite and NASA's Aqua satellite imagery showed wind shear was still affecting Tropical Storm Saola.as it moved through the Philippine Sea.
  
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• NASA Finds New Tropical Storm Selma Has Heavy Rain-making Potential

  27-10-2017 22:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tropical Storm Selma formed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of El Salvador and NASA infrared satellite imagery revealed the storm has very cold cloud top temperatures indicating the potential for heavy rain.
  
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• September 2017's Intense Solar Activity Viewed From Space

  27-10-2017 22:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  September 2017 saw a spate of solar activity, with the Sun emitting 27 M-class and four X-class flares and releasing several powerful coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, between Sept. 6-10. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation, while coronal mass ejections are massive clouds of solar material and magnetic fields that erupt from the Sun at incredible speeds.
  
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• Swarms of Monarch Butterflies Stuck Up North

  27-10-2017 22:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tens of thousands of monarch butterflies that should be in Texas by now, en route to their wintering grounds in Mexico, are still in the northern U.S. and Canada, their migrations delayed due to above-average temperatures and strong winds this fall.
  
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• Bamboozled! Climate Change Pushing Greater Bamboo Lemur Closer to the Brink of Extinction

  27-10-2017 21:48 via feedproxy.google.com
  New study from world’s leading lemur expert paints grim picture for future of dietary specialists
  
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• Eat less fish to help replenish our fish stocks | Letters

  27-10-2017 19:58 via theguardian.com
  Colin Bannon on how to tackle a post-Brexit problemThe WWF is absolutely right that our fish stocks are at risk from leaving the common fisheries policy (Call for Brexit monitoring of UK fishing fleet, 27 October). This is because in reality fish stocks all round Europe are precarious and all the (welcome) “recovery” in cod stock means is that there are now very few fish instead of very, very few.My contribution to the future of fish stocks is to not eat fish until there are marine c
  
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• Farming sector aims to cut antibiotics use to help tackle human resistance

  27-10-2017 19:56 via theguardian.com
  Taskforce from UK’s pig, dairy and poultry farming sectors will aim to bring down use seen as major cause of increasing antibiotic resistanceFarming organisations have set new targets to reduce the use of antibiotics in raising animals for food, in an effort to cut the widespread overuse that has been blamed as a significant factor in increasing medicinal resistance among humans.The chief medical officer for England, Dame Sally Davies, has repeatedly said that the rapidly increasing resist
  
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• The call of the foghorn mournful | Brief letters

  27-10-2017 19:55 via theguardian.com
  Universal credit | Weatherwatch | Real signs | Candles in Bath | Butter shortageI recently completed my tax return for 2016-17 and as I owe less than £3,000 HMRC is happy to let me start paying the bill on my tax code from April 2018. This generosity from the government for those of us fortunate enough to have taxable income seems in stark contrast to those being moved to universal credit (Rent arrears spiral in universal credit pilot, 24 October), where it is deemed better that vulnerable
  
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• Nestlé, Mars and Hershey 'breaking promises over palm oil use'

  27-10-2017 18:22 via theguardian.com
  This year’s Halloween confectionery will contain palm oil grown on land that should lawfully be habitat to orangutans, rhinos and clouded leopards, despite commitment to clean up supply chainsNestlé, Mars and Hershey have been accused of breaking pledges to stop using “conflict palm oil” from deforested Indonesian jungles, just days before the annual Halloween confectionery frenzy.The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says consumers have been “deceived” by prom
  
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• Sky hits key sustainability goals three years early

  27-10-2017 17:33
  Reductions in water, emissions and food waste are notable achievements in Sky's latest CSR report, which reveals that the TV broadcaster has hit half of its environmental targets three years early.
  
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• How cities can fight climate change most effectively

  27-10-2017 17:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  What are the best ways for U.S. cities to combat climate change? A new study co-authored by an MIT professor indicates it will be easier for cities to reduce emissions coming from residential energy use rather than from local transportation — and this reduction will happen mostly thanks to better building practices, not greater housing density.The study analyzes how extensively local planning policies could either complement the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) of 2015 o
  
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• Waste organisations prepare to tackle a horror show on Halloween

  27-10-2017 17:13
  Halloween weekend is upon us, and whether people plan on carving Pennywise the Clown into pumpkins or go trick or treating as Donald Trump, the waste sector is gearing up for its own modern-day horror story.
  
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• Ryan Zinke: cowboy in Trump's cabinet who seems set on wrecking America's public lands

  27-10-2017 17:09 via theguardian.com
  Interior secretary Zinke calls himself a ‘Teddy Roosevelt guy’ – but he’s quietly dismantling environmental protections and yielding to oil industry interests
  He recently posed for a GQ magazine photo shoot with a fly fishing rod in front of snow-capped Montana peaks.He rode a horse – named Tonto – down the National Mall to his first day of work at the Interior Department. Continue reading...
  
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• Ryan Zinke: cowboy in Trump's cabinet taking aim at America's public lands

  27-10-2017 17:09 via theguardian.com
  Interior secretary Zinke calls himself a ‘Teddy Roosevelt guy’ – but he’s quietly dismantling environmental protections and yielding to oil industry interests
  He recently posed for a GQ magazine photo shoot with a fly fishing rod in front of snow-capped Montana peaks.He rode a horse – named Tonto – down the National Mall to his first day of work at the Interior Department. Continue reading...
  
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• Sheffield councillor cleared of breaching tree-felling order

  27-10-2017 16:26 via theguardian.com
  Green party councillor Alison Teal was accused of entering ‘safety zone’ erected around trees due to be felledA Green party councillor has been found not guilty of breaching a court order while trying to stop trees being felled in Sheffield.Alison Teal, the councillor for Nether Edge and Sharrow, could have faced up to two years in jail for allegedly ignoring an injunction brought by Sheffield city council over its controversial programme that has resulted in about 5,500 mature trees
  
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• Researchers probe explosion in the number of pyrosomes off Alaska

  27-10-2017 15:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center are reporting a never-before-seen phenomenon in Alaska waters—an influx of strange organisms that resemble flattened, translucent sea pickles.It may sound like déjà vu. A similar story made headlines along the West Coast last summer, but this is a new situation for Alaska.
  
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• Halloween lemurs and a hoard of skulls: today's best photos

  27-10-2017 14:37 via theguardian.com
  The Guardian’s picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world, including protesters in Kenya and murals in Atlanta Continue reading...
  
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• Artificial intelligence smart enough to fool Captcha security check

  27-10-2017 14:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers developed an algorithm that imitates how the human brain responds to these visual clues.
  
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• Russia holds nuclear-capable missile tests

  27-10-2017 13:52 via bbc.co.uk
  President Putin pressed the launch button for four missiles in the exercise, the Kremlin said.
  
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• Shrinking solar deployment darkens UK's record low-carbon electricity mix

  27-10-2017 13:26
  Despite low-carbon sources providing more than half of all UK energy generation for the second time, the Government has been urged to address policy barriers that have "unnecessarily impeded" the development of solar technologies over the last two years.
  
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• Subsidy plan for coal and nuclear plants 'will cost US taxpayers $10.6bn a year'

  27-10-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Non-partisan analysis reveals the cost of energy secretary Rick Perry’s proposal to give handouts to some of the country’s oldest and dirtiest power plantsA Trump administration plan to subsidize coal and nuclear energy would cost US taxpayers about $10.6bn a year and prop up some of the oldest and dirtiest power plants in the country, a new analysis has found.The Department of Energy has proposed that coal and nuclear plants be compensated not only for the electricity they produce b
  
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• Diesel tax loophole 'thwarting' Government's clean air strategy

  27-10-2017 11:24
  Government efforts to improve air quality and phase-out the use of diesel vehicles are being undermined by a tax loophole that allows refrigerated lorries to use "red diesel" and pollute the highways.
  
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• Call to conserve 'crucial' rare Wales spider species

  27-10-2017 10:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Some of the 500 species of spiders that live in Wales are found almost nowhere else in the world.
  
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• Nissan joins Formula E to showcase 'intelligent mobility' updates

  27-10-2017 09:15
  Japanese car manufacturer Nissan has confirmed its participation in next season's all-electric racing series Formula E, while also launching two new commercial electric vehicles (EVs) at the Tokyo Motor Show.
  
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• Country diary: prickly or bitter, wild lettuce is thriving

  27-10-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Woodwalton Fen, Cambridgeshire One magnificent specimen is a metre-wide rosette of oar-shaped leavesStorm Brian has eased, but the gusts still rustle the sallow, alder and willow leaves and sway the reeds. The firmament transforms rapidly from broken ashen blankets to a solid leaden layer and then a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. We strike south through a wooded area of the fen, towards the low sun glittering through the trees. A fallen birch trunk hosts many Fomes fomentarius, a heavy-duty
  
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• Frugal Cartons and wooden wind turbines: the best green innovations of the week

  27-10-2017 02:01
  In a week of warnings for the UK green economy, edie rounds up the low-carbon and resource-efficient innovations that could shape the future.
  
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• Frydenberg on why energy policy is no sop to Abbott – Australian politics live podcast

  27-10-2017 00:01 via theguardian.com
  Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, talks to the energy minister about the new national energy guarantee. Will it meet Australia’s commitments to the Paris agreement? How can it do that and reduce power prices? And how did he get something that looks a lot like a carbon price past the former prime minister? • Frydenberg says government will further reduce emissions to meet Paris targetSubscribe & Review: iTunes, Audioboom, Acast & Mixcloud Continue r
  
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