Environment news

• 2017: A grand year in science

  31-12-2017 16:55 via bbc.co.uk
  A look back at the best science stories of 2017.
  
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• Government infighting over old growth forest logging revealed in 1995 cabinet papers

  31-12-2017 14:01
  Then primary industries minister tried to renew 11 woodchip export licences against environment department’s adviceIn January 1995 the Keating government’s attempts to curtail logging in old growth forests ran into fierce opposition when timber trucks blockaded Parliament House, ringing the building for days.The government had established the regional forest policy in 1992, in a bid to balance environmental preservation with jobs in the timber industry. Its aim was to preserve high-v
  
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• Cabinet papers: Keating MPs considered carbon tax to tackle climate change

  31-12-2017 14:01
  Cabinet debated how to cling on to government’s ‘no regrets’ policy while maintaining Australia’s influence at international bargaining tableAustralia’s response to climate change and the challenge of meeting its international obligations proved as difficult for the Keating government in 1994 and 1995 as it would for future governments.Cabinet papers released by the Australian National Archives on Monday show that much of the debate in the Keating cabinet was about
  
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• Scan technique reveals secret writing in mummy cases

  31-12-2017 13:45 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers in London have developed scanning techniques that show what is written on the papyrus that mummy cases are made from.
  
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• Country diary 1918: birds stirred by the promise of better times

  31-12-2017 11:30
  1 January 1918 It was from a food-hunting flock of tits, vigorously working from tree to tree, that a great tit detached itself with harsh cries of alarmThe birds are not sentimental; the death of the old year, the passing of time, does not worry them. They know that winter is a strenuous season, for food is hard to find and every beakful means a search; perhaps they feel at times that the days are lengthening and are stirred by the promise of better times, but beyond that the close of one year
  
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• Camille Parmesan: ‘Trump’s extremism on climate change has brought people together’

  31-12-2017 08:00
  The climate scientist on leaving the US to work in France – with funding from President Macron – and why she believes Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris agreement will backfire on himCamille Parmesan, a biologist at the universities of Texas and Plymouth, is one of the world’s most influential climate change scientists, having shown how butterflies and other species are affected by it across all continents. She is one of 18 US scientists moving to France to take up
  
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• The eco guide to New Year recycling

  31-12-2017 07:00
  Now that China and Hong Kong won’t take our rubbish, it’s time to get realRight now you may well be surveying the wreckage of Christmas, all that old wrapping paper. Whereas in previous years I’ve skipped through the issue of post-Christmas waste in an upbeat “how to” guide, this year’s advice might be summed up as “Brace, brace”.Let me explain. Back in July the Chinese government announced a clampdown on so-called “foreign garbage”. To
  
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• The appliance of science: hope and fear in tomorrow’s world | Jim Al-Khalili

  31-12-2017 07:00
  As advances in gene editing, energy and AI gain momentum, Jim Al-Khalili predicts their impact on our futureMeteorologists can now reliably tell us if it is going to rain tomorrow, but wouldn’t dream of forecasting rain a year from now. Similarly, scientists find it much easier to predict what the world will look like in the next decade rather than in a century. This is because the technology of tomorrow relies on the science of today – it is only after we have understood a certain c
  
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• The best science long reads of 2017 (part two)

  31-12-2017 01:20 via bbc.co.uk
  The second part of our selection of the best science and environment reads this year.
  
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• We won’t save the world by watching celebrity nature shows | Lucy Siegle

  31-12-2017 01:05
  For all its worth, Blue Planet doesn’t exactly provide a thorough educationIt’s been a big month for the planet on TV. Through Judi Dench recently, we discovered these things called trees, a life-sustaining resource to be sure. This came hot on the heels of David Attenborough’s revelations that the oceans are chock-a-block with plastic that might kill baby whales. Who knew this stuff was happening to our precious planet?Well, everybody knew, or at least we should have done. I&r
  
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• Spring flowers in autumn, birdsong in winter: what a freak year for nature

  31-12-2017 01:05
  When Stephen Moss was a boy, the seasons followed predictable patternsWhen I was growing up, in the 1960s and 1970s, we had what my nan used to call “proper weather”. Snow in winter, showers in spring, sun (or at least, sunny intervals) in summer and gales in autumn. Britain’s weather may have been changeable by the day, but the seasons were seemingly set in stone, with a reassuringly predictable regularity.That certainly suited the country’s fauna and flora. Wild animals
  
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• Burning wood for power is ‘misguided’ say climate experts

  31-12-2017 01:05
  Using biomass instead of fossil fuels may not be the answer to averting global warmingPolicies aimed at limiting climate change by boosting the burning of biomass contain critical flaws that could actually damage attempts to avert dangerous levels of global warming in the future. That is the stark view of one of Britain’s chief climate experts, Professor John Beddington, who has warned that relying on the cutting down and burning of trees as a replacement for the use of fossil fuels could
  
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