Environment news

• What it's like spending a year in space

  08-11-2017 21:55 via bbc.co.uk
  Long time far from home, with great views... the International Space Station is not your typical holiday spot.
  
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• Mandatory state policies work best to curb power plant emissions, study finds

  08-11-2017 21:18 via feedproxy.google.com
  “Due to the current void in national leadership on the issue of climate change, efforts at the state and local level are more important than ever,” says Eri Saikawa, an assistant professor of Environmental Sciences.
  
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• 'Zombie' star survived going supernova

  08-11-2017 21:11 via bbc.co.uk
  Astronomers discover the astronomical equivalent of a horror film villain: a star that wouldn't stay dead.
  
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• Human-Caused Warming Increasing Likelihood of Record-Breaking Hot Years

  08-11-2017 21:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new study finds human-caused global warming is significantly increasing the rate at which hot temperature records are being broken around the world.Global annual temperature records show there were 17 record hot years from 1861 to 2005. The new study examines whether these temperature records are being broken more often and if so, whether human-caused global warming is to blame
  
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• Major Return on Investment from Improving Climate Observations

  08-11-2017 20:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  A well-designed climate observing system could help scientists answer knotty questions about climate while delivering trillions of dollars in benefits by providing decision makers information they need to protect public health and the economy in the coming decades, according to a new paper published today.
  
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• Blue Planet II: Eel suffers toxic shock in underwater lake

  08-11-2017 19:35 via bbc.co.uk
  Re-live the talked-about moment when an eel suffers the consequences of diving into a brine pool for food.
  
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• Narcissi bobbing in the slipstream of traffic | Brief letters

  08-11-2017 19:33 via theguardian.com
  Decline in seasons | Closure of Seer Green post office | Boris Johnson journalism fund | Government by dirty old menI’ve not seen any wasps either, now that you mention it (Letters, 4 November). What I have seen are the first daffodils of the spring – in November, when autumn hasn’t properly happened yet. Oaks and ashes are still holding their green leaves. I expect winter-flowering cherry, winter camellias, winter iris and daffs “January” and “February Gold&r
  
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• Our Vision for Moving Humanity Forward

  08-11-2017 19:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  We can’t completely predict what our world will look like 25 years from now, but we constantly study trends so that we can anticipate the rapid changes taking place in our industry.
  
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• Dozens of New Wildlife Corridors Identified for African Mammals

  08-11-2017 19:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have identified 52 potential wildlife corridors linking protected areas across Tanzania. Using a cost-effective combination of interviews with local residents and a land conversion dataset for East Africa, they found an additional 23 corridors over those previously identified by Tanzanian government reports.
  
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• Sensors Applied to Plant Leaves Warn of Water Shortage

  08-11-2017 19:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  Forgot to water that plant on your desk again? It may soon be able to send out an SOS.
  
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• Easing the Soil's Temperature

  08-11-2017 19:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  Soil characteristics like organic matter content and moisture play a vital role in helping plants flourish. It turns out that soil temperature is just as important. Every plant needs a certain soil temperature to thrive. If the temperature changes too quickly, plants won’t do well. Their seeds won’t germinate or their roots will die.
  
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• JRC at COP23: A Cleaner, Greener Planet is Both Possible and Affordable

  08-11-2017 19:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  Limiting global warming below the critical 2C level set out in the Paris Agreement is both feasible and consistent with economic growth – and the knock-on improvements to air quality could already cover the costs of mitigation measures and save more than 300,000 lives annually by 2030.
  
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• Coal-fired plant shifted $1bn offshore while pocketing $117m from Australian taxpayers

  08-11-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Payment to owner of Loy Yang B – one of country’s dirtiest plants – was compensation for short-lived carbon taxThe owner of one of Australia’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants quietly moved $1bn offshore within days of pocketing $117m from taxpayers in compensation for Labor’s now-defunct carbon tax.The revelation, contained in the Paradise Papers, has prompted renewed criticism of the “chronic failure” of Australian climate policy and warnings against f
  
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• 'Butterfly child' given life-saving skin

  08-11-2017 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Hassan was born with skin so delicate it would tear and blister
  
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• NASA Sees the End of Tropical Depression 29W

  08-11-2017 18:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  Born from the remnants of Tropical Cyclone 28W, Tropical Depression 29W only lasted a few days before it began rapidly decaying. NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite found the disorganized storm weakening over the Malay Peninsula.
  
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• NASA's IMERG Adds Up Heavy Rainfall from Tropical Storm Damrey

  08-11-2017 18:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  Using a fleet of satellites, NASA calculated the heavy rainfall in Vietnam left by Typhoon Damrey at the beginning of November.
  
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• We Should Use Central Pressure Deficit, Not Wind Speed, To Predict Hurricane Damage

  08-11-2017 18:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  The system for categorizing hurricanes accounts only for peak wind speeds, but research published in Nature Communications explains why central pressure deficit is a better indicator of economic damage from storms in the United States.
  
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• Europe's carmakers face 30% emission cuts target

  08-11-2017 18:32 via theguardian.com
  New proposals to limit CO2 from passenger cars and vans by 2030 would meet climate goals, but campaigners say regulations fall short The European commission has unveiled new proposals for limits on carbon dioxide emissions from passenger cars and vans, which would compel manufacturers to cut emissions from their vehicles by nearly a third from 2030.But the proposals will not require manufacturers to make a fixed quota of their fleet run on electricity, as some campaigners had hoped. Continue rea
  
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• 'I feel helpless': Delhi residents on the smog crisis

  08-11-2017 17:36 via theguardian.com
  Smog, respirator masks and ‘business as usual: our readers share their experiences of Delhi’s public health emergency
  A public health emergency has been declared by doctors in Delhi, as the air quality in the world’s most polluted city dropped to levels likened to smoking 50 cigarettes a day. Related: Delhi doctors declare pollution emergency as smog chokes cityContinue reading...
  
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• Politicians and activists gather for COP23 Bonn climate talks - in pictures

  08-11-2017 16:01 via theguardian.com
  The world’s nations are meeting in Bonn, Germany, for the 23rd annual “conference of the parties” (COP) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which aims to prevent dangerous global warming. This year, Fiji plays president and meeting the Paris climate goals are top of the agendaThe COP23 climate change summit in Bonn and why it mattersContinue reading...
  
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• Sheep 'trained to recognise celebrities' in Cambridge University study

  08-11-2017 15:56 via bbc.co.uk
  The animals have demonstrated the ability to recognise familiar human faces, according to a study.
  
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• Don't dump your potatoes – use these easy recipes for your freezer

  08-11-2017 15:23 via theguardian.com
  We are binning nearly half of the fresh spuds we buy. But stashing some in the freezer can save time and make for extra-crunchy roasties
  Proof, as if more proof were needed, that Britain is heading to hell in a handcart, comes with the news that we waste nearly half the potatoes we buy, throwing a shameful 2.7m potential roasties or jackets in the bin every day.The blame could be laid at the door of supermarkets, who insist on selling spuds in vast, plastic-wrapped quantities; decant them into a
  
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• Germany's dirty coalmines become the focus for a new wave of direct action

  08-11-2017 14:47 via theguardian.com
  Not far from the UN climate talks taking place in Bonn, activists frustrated with slow progress by governments are turning up the heat at the Hambach opencast mine, highlighting Germany’s failure to live up to its green pledgesA giant black mark on Germany’s environmental record is scarred on the land an hour’s drive from the venue of this year’s UN climate talks in Bonn.Stretching 85 kilometres wide and 400 metres deep, the opencast coalmine near Hambach forest is the bi
  
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• Is your business energy-resilient? edie to host free webinar on 30 November

  08-11-2017 13:09
  Energy management experts from M&S, Landsec and Centrica Business Solutions will be discussing the practical steps businesses can take to ensure energy resilience in a live, interactive edie webinar later this month.
  
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• 'As close as the US gets to Egypt’s pyramids': how Chaco Canyon is endangered by drilling

  08-11-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Irreplaceable cultural resources in New Mexico are among those areas targeted for expedited drilling – and conservationists say it’s ‘like losing pages and chapters of that history book’In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, it is still possible to wander the maze of rooms of an ancestral Puebloan village erected roughly 1,000 years ago.Visitors use the same staircases and duck through the same T-shaped doorways as residents did at the time. A jigsaw puzzle of rocks form walls that
  
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• Food and drink manufacturing sustainability: edie launches new sector insight report

  08-11-2017 11:39
  The key sustainability drivers, challenges and opportunities facing UK businesses are being explored in a series of industry-focused edie insight reports, with the third sector summary investigating the state of sustainability in food and drink manufacturing published today (8 November).
  
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• Snake charmer: man held in Germany found with python in his pants

  08-11-2017 11:36 via theguardian.com
  Darmstadt police detained 19-year-old after a drunken row with another man and said they saw ‘significant bulge in his trousers’A man detained by police during a drunken argument in Germany may have violated animal welfare laws after being found to be carrying a baby python in his pants.Police in Darmstadt, in the west of the country, said he was held on Tuesday night after a loud row with another man disturbed residents. They said he was searched and officers noticed “a signif
  
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• US isolated as Syria signs the Paris Agreement

  08-11-2017 11:25
  The US, the world's second largest emitter, is "out in the cold" as the only nation outside of the Paris Agreement on climate change, after Syria became the latest and last signatory to the global accord.
  
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• The US isolated as Syria signs the Paris Agreement

  08-11-2017 11:25
  The US, the world's second largest emitter, is "out in the cold" as the only nation outside of the Paris Agreement on climate change, after Syria became the latest and last signatory to the global accord.
  
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• EU and California to discuss linking carbon markets

  08-11-2017 10:30
  The EU and California are beginning talks to potentially create a common carbon market that could also include China.
  
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• Government faces fresh air quality legal case

  08-11-2017 10:29
  The Government is being taken to court for the third time by environmental lawyers over the UK's illegal levels of toxic air pollution.
  
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• German Greens drop car and coal policies in coalition talks with Merkel

  08-11-2017 10:23 via theguardian.com
  Decision to drop key issues welcomed by other negotiating parties but criticised by some supportersGermany’s Green party has agreed to compromise on key environmental issues in talks between parties hoping to form a coalition government by the end of the year.The party’s decision to back down on its insistence over a ban on combustion engines and the closing down of coal-fired power plants was welcomed by the other negotiating parties as paving the way for official negotiations to be
  
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• Renault unveils 'industry-first' autonomous driving safety feature

  08-11-2017 08:15
  French car maker Renault has developed an "industry first" autonomous control system that can match professional test drivers on road obstacle avoidance scenarios, bringing the car makers self-driving vision closer to reality.
  
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• The seven megatrends that could beat global warming: 'There is reason for hope'

  08-11-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Until recently the battle to avert catastrophic climate change – floods, droughts, famine, mass migrations – seemed to be lost. But with the tipping point just years away, the tide is finally turning, thanks to innovations ranging from cheap renewables to lab-grown meat and electric airplanes‘Everybody gets paralysed by bad news because they feel helpless,” says Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief who delivered the landmark Paris climate change agreement. &ld
  
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• Nearly half of all fresh potatoes thrown away daily by UK households

  08-11-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Figures show nearly 3 million potatoes a day are wasted, at a cost of £230m a yearNearly half of the edible fresh potatoes bought by UK householders each day are thrown away - nearly 2.7 million of them per day, and at a “staggering” annual cost of £230m, figures show.The humble spud is the second most wasted food in the UK, behind bread, according to new official figures released on Wednesday. The new research was offered in support of a government campaign to encourage
  
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• Country diary: white looks too clean in the ochre smoulder of autumn

  08-11-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Wenlock Edge, Shropshire This gently rotting place, soggy with last night’s rain and morning fog, muddies itself into winterA pair of doves settles on the stones, white as pacifist poppies. Perhaps they escaped from a loft or dovecote; perhaps they turned up separately and found the strangeness of each other in a place full of jackdaws. They have been around for a couple of years pecking crumbs outside the market, cooing from precarious roosts inside the bed-of-nails pigeon guards on roof
  
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• Rare victory for rainforests as nations vow to stop 'death by chocolate'

  08-11-2017 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Plans by the governments of Ghana and Ivory Coast drawn up after Guardian investigation revealed links between the cocoa industry and rainforest lossThe governments of Ghana and the Ivory Coast are formulating plans to immediately put a stop to all new deforestation after a Guardian investigation found that the cocoa industry was destroying their rainforests.
  The west African neighbours have been drafting new measures to rescue their remaining forests and replant degraded ones. Continue reading.
  
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• Sewing for Nasa

  08-11-2017 04:09 via bbc.co.uk
  From the Apollo spacesuits to the Mars rovers, women behind the scenes have stitched vital spaceflight components.
  
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• The dog that orbited the Earth

  08-11-2017 01:59 via bbc.co.uk
  The first living creature to be sent into orbit around the Earth was a Soviet stray dog called Laika. She was a pioneer of the space race.
  
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• Sheep 'can recognise human faces'

  08-11-2017 01:58 via bbc.co.uk
  University researchers trained sheep to recognise famous people, including Barack Obama and Fiona Bruce.
  
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• One in three cars in VW emissions scandal yet to be fixed, figures show

  08-11-2017 01:29 via theguardian.com
  Monthly rate of fixes of vehicles with defeat devices has fallen to 2% from a previous high of 10% earlier in the yearA third of cars manufactured by Volkswagen with devices to cheat emissions tests remain unfixed, two years after the scandal erupted.In what was coined the “diesel dupe”, VW equipped their vehicles with defeat devices designed to realise when they were being tested so they could appear to be much less polluting than in reality. Continue reading...
  
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