Environment news

• Court upholds Obama-era ban on new Grand Canyon uranium mines

  12-12-2017 23:23 via theguardian.com
  Celebration of the ruling by environmentalist has been tempered by expectations that the Trump administration will side with mining interests to end the banA powerful court ruled on Tuesday that an Obama-era ban on new uranium mines around the Grand Canyon should stay in place, though celebration on the environment side was tempered by expectations the government itself will now side with mining interests to end the ban. A separate, but linked, ruling on an older mine was a defeat for a Native A
  
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• World Bank to end financial support for oil and gas exploration

  12-12-2017 23:19 via theguardian.com
  Bank announces in Paris it ‘will no longer finance upstream oil and gas’ after 2019 in response to threat posed by climate changeThe World Bank will end its financial support for oil and gas exploration within the next two years in response to the growing threat posed by climate change.In a statement that delighted campaigners opposed to fossil fuels, the Bank used a conference in Paris to announce that it “will no longer finance upstream oil and gas” after 2019. Continue
  
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• Weatherwatch: the 'halcyon days' of December hark back to the kingfisher

  12-12-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  This shy little bird is linked to many bizarre beliefs about the weatherThe ancients called them the “halcyon days” – a period of fine, settled weather, lasting roughly seven days, which began sometime in the first half of December. During this time, it was said that the kingfisher (also known as the halcyon) would lay its eggs on the surface of the sea. The phrase, and the concept behind it, originated in ancient Greece, but during the Renaissance was popularised by several wr
  
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• A less rose-tinted view of Justin Trudeau’s Canada | Letters

  12-12-2017 20:41 via theguardian.com
  Linnea Rowlatt feels her country is less enlightened than often presentedDespite pleasure in seeing my country praised, I am not quick to agree with Will Goble that Canada may be considered an enlightened democracy today (Letters, High cost of wrecking the Soviet Union, 11 December). Contrary to the “sunny ways” promised during his election campaign, Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government upheld the Indian Act, which, despite tinkering, relegates women of the First Nations to seco
  
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• What David Attenborough should have said at the end of Blue Planet | Patrick Barkham

  12-12-2017 20:17 via theguardian.com
  Like the sea itself, the BBC’s showpiece nature programme was calm, hypnotic and awe-inspiring. But it lacked the grave message our situation demandsWe find the sea a great source of solace and peace. The author Ronald Blythe has written of the sea’s “most wonderful monotony”, which “can drug the watcher into forgetting past, present and future”.Watching Blue Planet II has been almost as hypnotic, with its sublime rendering of our turquoise oceans, a watery wo
  
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• Arctic permafrost thawing faster than ever, US climate study finds

  12-12-2017 20:04 via theguardian.com
  Sea ice also melting at fastest past in 1,500 years, US government scientists find‘The Arctic is a very different place than it was even a decade ago’ – author
  Permafrost in the Arctic is thawing faster than ever, according to a new US government report that also found Arctic seawater is warming and sea ice is melting at the fastest pace in 1,500 years.The annual report released on Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed slightly less warming in ma
  
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• Climate scientists study the odds of a megadrought

  12-12-2017 19:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  To help untangle fact from speculation, Cornell climate scientists and their colleagues have developed a “robust null hypothesis” to assess the odds of a megadrought – one that lasts more than 30 years – occurring in the western and southwestern United States. The research was published online Dec. 8 in the Journal of Climate.
  
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• Marine Turtles Dying After Becoming Entangled in Plastic Rubbish

  12-12-2017 18:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  Hundreds of marine turtles die every year after becoming entangled in rubbish in the oceans and on beaches,  including plastic ‘six pack’ holders and discarded fishing gear.  
  
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• Native Fish Species at Risk Following Water Removal from the Colorado River

  12-12-2017 18:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  Agriculture and domestic activities consume much of the Colorado River water that once flowed to the Colorado Delta and Northern Gulf of California. The nature and extent of impact of this fresh-water loss on the ecology and fisheries of the Colorado Delta and Gulf of California is controversial. A recent publication in the journal PeerJ reveals a previously unseen risk to the unique local biodiversity of the tidal portion of the Delta. 
  
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• Southern Africa's Cheetah Population Much Smaller Than Believed

  12-12-2017 18:43 via feedproxy.google.com
  Populations of cheetahs in southern Africa have declined as farming and other human activities push deeper into the free-roaming cats’ range, a new study co-led by Duke University doctoral student Varsha Vijay finds.
  
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• NREL Develops Novel Method to Produce Renewable Acrylonitrile

  12-12-2017 18:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  A new study from the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) establishes a novel catalytic method to produce renewable acrylonitrile using 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP), which can be biologically produced from sugars. This hybrid biological-catalytic process offers an alternative to the conventional petrochemical production method and achieves unprecedented acrylonitrile yields.
  
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• Jupiter Great Red Spot has deep roots

  12-12-2017 18:22 via bbc.co.uk
  Nasa's Juno probe begins to unlock the workings of the mighty storm that has raged on Jupiter for over 150 years.
  
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• Interstellar asteroid checked for alien technology

  12-12-2017 17:51 via bbc.co.uk
  A project searching for life in the cosmos will scan the first interstellar asteroid for signs of alien technology.
  
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• Fossil hunters find man-sized penguin on New Zealand beach

  12-12-2017 17:48 via theguardian.com
  Bones of a 5ft10in tall penguin who walked on earth 55 to 60 million years ago have been found on a beach to the south of ChristchurchThe remnants of an ancient penguin that stood as tall as a grown man have been found encased in rock on a beach in New Zealand.Fossil hunters chanced upon the prehistoric bones in sedimentary rock that formed 55 to 60 million years ago on what is now Hampden beach in Otago on the country’s south island.Continue reading...
  
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• Battery research could triple range of electric vehicles

  12-12-2017 17:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  New research at the University of Waterloo could lead to the development of batteries that triple the range of electric vehicles.The breakthrough involves the use of negative electrodes made of lithium metal, a material with the potential to dramatically increase battery storage capacity.“This will mean cheap, safe, long-lasting batteries that give people much more range in their electric vehicles,” said Quanquan Pang, who led the research while he was a PhD candidate in chemistry at
  
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• 'Face of climate change'?

  12-12-2017 17:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Images of a starving Canadian bear go viral - but all may not be as it appears.
  
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• Dracula ticks in amber tell ancient blood-sucking tale

  12-12-2017 17:20 via bbc.co.uk
  Feathered dinosaurs were covered in ticks just like modern animals, according to fossil evidence.
  
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• EU announces €9bn in funding for climate action

  12-12-2017 15:43 via theguardian.com
  EU funds will be focused on clean energy, and sustainable cities and agriculture, with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also pledging $300m towards climate adaptationThe European commission has announced funding of €9bn (£8bn) for action on climate change, one of a flurry of measures from governments, businesses and investors aimed at achieving the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement.The EU funds will form part of the bloc’s External Investment Plan, and will be focused on sustai
  
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• California's 2017 Wildfire Season Continues to Break Records

  12-12-2017 15:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Thomas Fire burning north of Los Angeles in Ventura County, California is now the state’s fifth-largest wildfire on record. Less than 15 percent contained and moving west quickly, the fire is being fueled by dry conditions and strong winds. It is one of five wildfirescurrently burning in southern California.
  
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• University of Florida study: Bird evolves virtually overnight to keep up with invasive prey

  12-12-2017 14:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  The federally endangered bird, the snail kite, was faced with an interesting dilemma: The island apple snail was good to eat, but about two to five times bigger than the native snail that the bird usually consumed. What’s a hungry bird to do? Evolve – quickly.A study by a team of University of Florida researchers has found that in about 10 years, the snail kite has evolved to develop a larger beak as its new prey, the island apple snail, proliferated and became invasive. The study is
  
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• Green infrastructure: New tool by University of Toronto researchers to help construction industry reduce carbon footprint

  12-12-2017 14:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  A team of researchers from the University of Toronto is partnering with the construction industry to help reduce the carbon footprint of buildings, bridges, public transit and other major infrastructure projects.“What we’re building is a decision-support tool that can be used in the early stages of design and planning,” says Heather MacLean, a professor in the department of civil engineering who is one of five Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering professors involved in
  
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• Dell spearheads global initiative to combat ocean plastics

  12-12-2017 13:52
  Technology giant Dell is forming a collaborative initiative alongside General Motors and Interface to create the world's first commercial-scale supply chain for ocean-bound plastics, before they seep into waterways.
  
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• The Tories’ rebranding won’t wash: being green is about more than fluffy bunnies | Molly Scott Cato

  12-12-2017 13:28 via theguardian.com
  It’s all very well for Michael Gove to act as if the Tories love animals but they need to see the bigger picture on fracking, renewables and ecologyUp to their necks in Brexit chaos and with Corbyn’s Labour snapping at their heels, the Tories are trying again with a somewhat tired strategy to escape the label of the “nasty party”. They are having another go at acting like environmentalists, this time combining it with being nice to animals. At the helm of this more caring
  
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• UK banks join pledge to come clean on climate change risks

  12-12-2017 13:15 via theguardian.com
  Mark Carney says big six British banks have joined global initiative for firms to disclose climate change exposureBank of England governor Mark Carney has announced growing global support for a new initiative designed to help pave the way to a low-carbon economy by persuading firms to come clean about their exposure to climate-change risks.Speaking at the One Planet Summit in Paris, Carney said he was delighted that 237 companies with a combined market capitalisation of $6.3tn (£4.7tn) wer
  
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• Calls for greater fossil fuel divestment at anniversary of Paris climate deal

  12-12-2017 12:04 via theguardian.com
  Campaigners call for an end to fossil fuel finance and subsidies to avoid dangerous global warming at a meeting to mark two years since the signing of the landmark agreement The Paris agreement on climate change, ratified by world governments a year ago, has failed to ensure major investors are moving away from fossil fuels with the urgency required to safeguard the planet, civil society groups have said.Large companies, investors and national and local governments met in Paris on Tuesday to cel
  
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• Surveillance firms spied on campaign groups for big companies, leak shows

  12-12-2017 12:01 via theguardian.com
  Targets included grieving family of Rachel Corrie, environmental activists and local campaigners protesting about phone mastsInside the secret world of the corporate spies who infiltrate protests
  British Airways, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Porsche are among five large companies that have been identified as having paid corporate intelligence firms to monitor political groups that challenged their businesses, leaked documents reveal.
  The surveillance included the use of infiltrators to spy on
  
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• Wildcats, butterflies, tortoises: all are endangered by Trump's border wall

  12-12-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  In the Rio Grande Valley, close to the border with Mexico, the president’s proposed barrier spells danger for the region’s plentiful wildlifeDeep in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, where half the US’s species of butterflies reside in a protected swath of green, Donald Trump’s wall may soon rise from an earthen levee.The wall is designed to be a barricade to anyone who has crossed the nearby Rio Grande river from Mexico, with a concrete base topped by steel bollards risin
  
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• 'No shame': how the Trump administration granted big oil's wishlist

  12-12-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  The EPA has fulfilled almost all major demands made by the American Petroleum Institute within its first year under TrumpThe Trump administration’s zeal for environmental rollbacks has enabled it to fulfill almost all of the top priorities in a “wishlist” drawn up by the American Petroleum Institute (API), the leading lobby group for US oil and gas companies.Continue reading...
  
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• How big oil is tightening its grip on Donald Trump's White House

  12-12-2017 12:00 via theguardian.com
  The oil industry has stalled action on climate change from the inside and sold America on fossil fuels – and its influence goes back further than people realizeWhen Rick Perry was interrupted by climate-change protesters during his address to the National Petroleum Council in late September, the energy secretary was ready with a retort.“You want to talk about something that saves lives? It’s the access to energy around the globe,” Perry said, countering a woman worried ab
  
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• Golden eagles released in Scotland with hope they will fly south

  12-12-2017 11:48 via theguardian.com
  Conservationists launch project to restore bird numbers with view to reintroducing them in northern England and Lake DistrictConservationists hope golden eagles will start reappearing over northern England and the Lake District as part of a project to release up to 10 eagles in southern Scotland.The birds will start to be released at a secret location south of Edinburgh from next year in a £1.5m programme by conservationists and landowners to restore golden eagle numbers in the southern up
  
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• Climate change: Trump will bring US back into Paris deal - Macron

  12-12-2017 11:35 via bbc.co.uk
  But the French leader says he will not agree to a demand that America's terms should be negotiated.
  
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• Meat tax 'increasingly probable' to help combat climate change

  12-12-2017 10:58
  Investors have claimed that the implementation of the Paris Agreement will lead to some governments introducing a "livestock levy" that cuts meat consumption from diets, in a move than could avoid up to $600bn in climate damages by 2050.
  
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• UK to bring back beavers in first government flood reduction scheme of its kind

  12-12-2017 10:47 via theguardian.com
  Beaver family will be released in the Forest of Dean to stop a village from flooding, with potential for further such schemes to followA valley in the Forest of Dean will echo to the sound of herbivorous munching next spring when a family of beavers are released into a fenced enclosure to stop a village from flooding, in the first ever such scheme funded by the government.The plan for the village of Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, may soon be joined by other schemes. The environment secretary, Michae
  
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• Climate Action 100+: New investor initiative targets top 100 corporate emitters

  12-12-2017 10:13
  More than 200 of the most influential investor institutions, with more than $26.3trn in assets under management, have today (12 December) launched a new global initiative to help the 100 largest corporate emitters reduce value chain carbon footprints.
  
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• Global companies call on nations to push for 'well-below' 2C Paris target

  12-12-2017 09:41
  More than 50 global companies including Unilever, M&S and Adidas have called on nations meeting in Paris to discuss climate progress, to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 and create the framework to limit global warming increases to well below 2C.
  
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• It's beloved, but Australia's magpie is an international bird of mystery | Leo Joseph

  12-12-2017 09:30 via theguardian.com
  Our magpies are not the same as Europe’s, so why do they share a name? The bird of the year has a complicated back storyThe Australian magpie has been crowned bird of the year but how much do we really know about it? Where do magpies fit in the evolutionary scheme of things? Why do we even call them magpies?DNA sequencing technology has revolutionised biology. Our understanding of the evolutionary tree of bird life – that is how species and groups of birds are related to each other a
  
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• It's not asking the earth for independent watchdog to fill EU gap

  12-12-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Michael Gove must deliver on his promise to give ‘the environment a voice’ to ensure short-term politics do not interfere with the natural worldMichael Gove has raised the stakes for those of us determined to see a world-class environment for the UK. The environment secretary has vowed that the government will establish a “new, world-leading body to give the environment a voice and hold the powerful to account, independent of government and able to speak its mind freely”.
  
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• Insurance giant Axa dumps investments in tar sands pipelines

  12-12-2017 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Axa will also stop insuring US oil pipelines for business and ethical reasons, taking fossil fuel divestment to new levelOne of the world’s biggest financial services companies is both dumping investments and ending insurance for controversial US oil pipelines, taking fossil fuel divestment to a new level.
  Axa is also quadrupling its divestment from coal businesses and increasing its green investments fivefold by 2020. The moves were announced at the One Planet Summit in Paris, called by t
  
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• 'Our playground': London cyclists find utopia in Regent's Park

  12-12-2017 08:30 via theguardian.com
  Every morning groups of cyclists gather to ride the park’s Outer Circle. As cycling gains momentum in the city, more circuits might flourishIt’s half past seven on a mild October morning, just getting light, and I am waiting with my bike at one of the most tranquil spots in central London, under a canopy of trees on the Inner Circle. Hidden away inside Regent’s Park, the Inner Circle is a circular road where my cycling friends and I are to rendezvous before setting off for an h
  
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• Wet wipes make up 93% of matter causing UK sewer blockages

  12-12-2017 08:15 via theguardian.com
  City to Sea campaign says we must rethink bad habits and only flush ‘three Ps: pee, paper and poo’ as study finds blockages cost UK £100m a yearBaby wipes are causing hundreds of thousands of blockages in the UK sewer system and costing the country £100m every year, according to a new report.The study from Water UK, the trade body representing all of the main water and sewerage companies in the country, found that wipes made up about 93% of the material causing the sewer
  
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• Redrow targets biodiversity 'net gain' at new developments

  12-12-2017 08:15
  UK housebuilder Redrow has announced that a "net gain" approach to biodiversity will be adopted across all new developments, following a trial period that successfully enhanced the ecological land value of certain projects.
  
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• Overfishing and climate change push seabirds to extinction

  12-12-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Kittiwakes and gannets are among seabirds that have joined endangered species on IUCN red list as food stocks dwindle, says study Overfishing and climate change are pushing some of the world’s most iconic seabirds to the brink of extinction, according to a new report.
  The study reveals that kittiwakes and gannets are among a number of seabirds that have now joined the red list of under-threat birds drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Continue reading...
  
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• Green Investment Bank sold too cheaply, watchdog says

  12-12-2017 07:01 via theguardian.com
  National Audit Office report puts Macquarie deal at low end of valuation with extra tens of millions lost from rejection of phased sale optionMinisters missed out on tens of millions extra on the sale of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) in August, according to the spending watchdog.The National Audit Office said the £1.6bn paid in cash by the Australian bank Macquarie came in at the low end of the government’s valuation. Macquarie agreed to spend a further £500m to cover the ban
  
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• Country diary: wasps have the gall to remind us of their earlier presence

  12-12-2017 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Pulborough Brooks, West Sussex I have the reserve to myself, save for a flock of bullfinches and the geese and ducks collecting on the flooded fieldsSmall black clouds of starlings fly up from the fields and whirr for a short distance before dropping back into the long grass. Seven Canada geese call to each other as they fly past, descending onto the flooded fields to join the other geese and ducks collecting there before dusk. I cross the brooks from the river Arun, my boots sinking into the so
  
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• Wild elephant attacks vehicles in China – video

  12-12-2017 03:08 via theguardian.com
  Footage from local residents and forestry officials shows the moment an elephant attacks two vehicles in the middle of a road in southwest China’s Yunnan Province Continue reading...
  
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• Golden eagle migration out of sync with climate change

  12-12-2017 02:56 via bbc.co.uk
  Adult golden eagles are unable to shift the timing of their migration, a North American study shows
  
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• Theresa May puts tackling climate change back on Tory agenda

  12-12-2017 01:16 via theguardian.com
  Prime minister says there is a ‘moral imperative’ to help vulnerable countries as she prepares for summit in ParisTheresa May has declared that tackling climate change and reducing its effects on poorer countries is a “moral imperative”, as the Conservative party renewed its push to portray itself as environmentally friendly. Related: It’s Britain’s duty to help nations hit by climate changeContinue reading...
  
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• 'Worrying alarm call' for world's birds on brink of extinction

  12-12-2017 01:09 via bbc.co.uk
  Seabirds such as the kittiwake are being pushed to the brink of extinction, say conservationists.
  
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• Theresa May: It’s Britain’s duty to help nations hit by climate change

  12-12-2017 01:00 via theguardian.com
  The benefits of clean growth lay at the heart of our industrial strategy. But we must be at the forefront of the effort to keep global temperature rises at manageable levelsTackling climate change and mitigating its effects for the world’s poorest are among the most critical challenges the world faces. That is why I will join other world leaders gathering in Paris today for the One Planet Summit.There is a clear moral imperative for developed economies such as the UK to help those around t
  
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