Environment news

• A New Strategy for Efficient Hydrogen Production

  27-12-2017 21:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  A joint research team, affiliated with UNIST has introduced the Hybrid-Solid Electrolysis Cell (Hybrid-SOEC) system with highest reported electrochemical performance in hydrogen production. The proposed system has attracted much attention as a new promising option for the cost-effective and highly-efficient hydrogen production, as it shows excellent performance compared with other water-electrolysis systems.
  
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• Utility-scale Solar Installations Can Avoid Using Farmland, Study Says

  27-12-2017 21:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  Across the U.S., the energy and agricultural industries are battling it out over whether to place solar panels or crops on large stretches of flat, sunny land. Now, a new study finds that developing solar energy arrays on alternative sites like buildings, lakes, and contaminated land would allow California to meet its 2025 electricity demands without sacrificing farmland.
  
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• Drinking coffee may lower risk of early death from colorectal cancer

  27-12-2017 21:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  People with colorectal cancer (CRC) who drank at least four cups of coffee per day after their diagnosis had a significantly lower risk of early death—from either their cancer or any cause—than those who didn’t drink coffee, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
  
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• Cleaner air, longer lives

  27-12-2017 21:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  The air we breathe contains particulate matter from a range of natural and human-related sources. Particulate matter is responsible for thousands of premature deaths in the United States each year, but legislation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is credited with significantly decreasing this number, as well as the amount of particulate matter in the atmosphere. However, the EPA may not be getting the full credit they deserve: New research from MIT’s Department of Civil
  
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• Military secrets of our nuclear power plants | Letters

  27-12-2017 19:04
  Disturbing links between Britain’s nuclear power stations and the military are highlighted by Dr David LowryIn her excellent article on the Hinkley C nuclear plant financial fiasco (The long read, 21 December), Holly Watt mentions the innovative insight of Sussex University academics Prof Andy Stirling and Dr Phil Johnstone, who have identified the central importance of expansion of the skill base of the new nuclear build programme – headed by Hinkley C – for the Trident milita
  
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• Clarets fans can avoid blue passport misery | Brief letters

  27-12-2017 19:03
  Global plastic binge | Rubber band wastage | Moon boots | Road songs | New UK passportThe global plastic binge (Report, 26 December) needs more than “serious source reduction efforts”. I have just completed a dry-season 10-day voyage along the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar, and did a similar trip down the Mekong river in Vietnam last year. The river banks are sadly festooned with plastic waste tipped there in the absence of municipal refuse collection. Come the rainy season the whole lo
  
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• In Mussels Across the Globe, Evidence of the Spread of Plastic Pollution

  27-12-2017 15:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  Scientists have discovered tiny bits of plastic in mussels in oceans across the globe, from supposedly pristine Arctic waters near Norway to the coasts of China, Chile, Canada, Britain, and Belgium, Reuters reported. The findings from several recent surveys are the latest evidence that plastic pollution isn’t just ending up in marine environments, but also in the food we eat. 
  
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• Prince Charles: 'Technology won't solve climate change'

  27-12-2017 13:20 via bbc.co.uk
  The Prince of Wales says we need to deal with the symptoms of climate change.
  
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• How the fight to save a bird species shows how to bridge the red/blue divide

  27-12-2017 12:00
  A plan to save the sage grouse was a rare instance where ranchers, the timber industry, scientists, landowners and environmentalists all agreed on somethingAt 5am, the day is black, and resounds with the steady drum of rain. My husband Rich is getting ready for work. He oils his leather gloves and fills a Thermos. He’ll spend a 10-hour day in the downpour: tramping through thorny salmonberry and wading through the roaring creeks.We live in the Oregon Coast Range, a region that’s been
  
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• Back from the brink

  27-12-2017 11:36 via bbc.co.uk
  Heavily armed and highly trained anti-poaching patrols have helped the population's recovery.
  
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• The Amazon town, a coral reef, big oil, and a catastrophe waiting to happen

  27-12-2017 11:30
  Oiapoque, surrounded by mangroves and close to a recently discovered 600-mile reef, is divided over what BP and Total might bring and what they might destroyAnchored in shallow, cloudy waters just a few hundred yards from the mangrove swamps that dominate this wild and empty coastline, the fishermen rolled in their nets. The three men had spent five days at sea and their catch glittered on the deck.“It’s good fishing,” said Cleyton Celeiro, 26, who feeds his wife and two childr
  
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• 'I have a lot of enemies': the Honduran marine park rangers facing death threats

  27-12-2017 11:30
  The tropical island of Roatán is a gold mine for tourism and fishermen but those protecting the reef want tougher laws to turn the area into a no-take zone‘Coral bleaching is getting worse ... but the biggest problem we have is pollution’
  “I’m like one of those old-school gangsters,” says Ralston Brooks, a park ranger on the island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras. “If you’re going to do it, do it. Pop a cap.” The 37-year-old boat
  
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• How did half of the great Florida coral reef system disappear?

  27-12-2017 11:30
  Overfishing, development and pollution have all contributed to the reef’s decline, but climate change is its biggest threat. UN targets must be met to stop ocean acidificationThe great Florida coral reef system stretches hundreds of miles down the eastern seaboard of the US. It is the world’s third largest, and nearly 1,400 species of plants and animals and 500 species of fish have been recorded there.But last year marine scientists found nearly half the reef was missing. They took t
  
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• 'Coral bleaching is getting worse ... but the biggest problem is pollution'

  27-12-2017 11:30
  Conservationists are battling to save the 700-mile Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in the Caribbean suffering the effects of mass tourism and global warming ‘I have a lot of enemies’: the Honduran marine park rangers facing death threats
  The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere – an underwater wilderness stretching over 700 miles along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.One of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the Americas,
  
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• 'We don’t have time to wait and see': air pollution protesters resort to direct action

  27-12-2017 11:00
  Campaigners vow to continue to block traffic at sites across London until their demands are heard and political action to reduce pollution levels is takenAs the green man appeared on the pedestrian crossing a couple of dozen people dressed in Santa hats and tinsel shuffled into the road at one of London’s busiest roundabouts.Moments later, in the early morning gloom, a banner was unfurled and the small group of pensioners, students and workers – armed with home-made road signs and le
  
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• Brushes with the wild: readers' best wildlife photographs of 2017

  27-12-2017 10:00
  As the year draws to a close, we celebrate the finest wildlife photos our readers’ have snapped this year – from fantastic foxes to thirsty chamois calves Continue reading...
  
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• Fake news is a threat to humanity, but scientists may have a solution | Dana Nuccitelli

  27-12-2017 09:00
  “Technocognition” proposes that we use technology and psychology to break through the mental barriers that make people deny threats like climate change
  People are very good at finding ways to believe what we want to believe. Climate change is the perfect example – acceptance of climate science among Americans is strongly related to political ideology. This has exposed humanity’s potentially fatal flaw. Denying an existential threat threatens our existence.But that’s
  
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• Six objects to define the London of 2017

  27-12-2017 08:30
  From a crammed tube carriage to a jar of diesel fumes, V&A curator Rory Hyde selects six items to sum up life in the capital for future museum-goersWhat would you preserve in a museum to define your city in 2017? Let us know in the comments. We’ll feature the best suggestionsThe Museum of London recently announced it would collect a piece of the giant stinking “fatberg” clogging the sewers of Whitechapel. The congealed blob of fat, oil, grease, wet wipes and sanitary produc
  
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• Does this croc found in Australian suburb belong to you?

  27-12-2017 07:33 via bbc.co.uk
  Australian police found a crocodile strolling the streets of a Melbourne suburb on Christmas Day.
  
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• County diary: lines made by walking

  27-12-2017 06:30
  Wenlock Edge, Shropshire Thawing snow highlights the paths people – and animals – take through the landscape A thin white track up the field marked where footsteps of schoolchildren, dog walkers and ramblers had compacted the snow and turned it to ice. When the thaw came only the narrow ice track remained: white, opalescent, slippery and dangerous to walk on. People took to the sides of the path, already claggy from before the snow, making the white line through dark earth even more
  
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