Environment news

• Canadian climate science faces crisis that may be felt globally, scientists warn

  22-01-2018 23:20 via theguardian.com
  In a letter to Justin Trudeau, 250 scientists highlight their concern over the imminent end of a research program to better understand climate changeCanadian climate science is facing a looming crisis whose repercussions could be felt far beyond the country’s borders, hundreds of scientists have warned, after the Canadian government failed to renew the country’s only dedicated funding program for climate and atmospheric research. Related: Indigenous Canadians face a crisis as climate
  
  Read more

• Small hydroelectric dams increase globally with little research, regulations

  22-01-2018 22:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  Hydropower dams may conjure images of the massive Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state or the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei, China — the world’s largest electricity-generating facility. But not all dams are the stuff of documentaries. Tens of thousands of smaller hydroelectric dams exist around the world, and all indications suggest that the number could substantially increase in the future.
  
  Read more

• Seabed mining could destroy ecosystems

  22-01-2018 22:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  Mining on the ocean floor could do irreversible damage to deep-sea ecosystems, says a new study of seabed mining proposals around the world.
  
  Read more

• Climate Change and Snowmelt - Turn Up the Heat, but What About Humidity?

  22-01-2018 22:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  It’s said on sticky summer days: “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” That holds true in the winter too, and could hold the key to the future of snowpack and water resources in the American West.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Peru passes law allowing roads through pristine Amazon rainforest

  22-01-2018 21:18 via theguardian.com
  Pope warned on Friday of threat to Amazon and its peoplesNew roads in border areas could affect five indigenous reservesPeru has approved a law that would allow roads to be built in the most remote and pristine region of its Amazon rainforest, a haven for isolated indigenous groups and an area of primary forest rich in mahogany trees.Related: Pope Francis says Amazon indigenous people under greater threat than everContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• Pioneering wolf becomes first sighted in Belgium for a century

  22-01-2018 17:54 via theguardian.com
  Researchers have tracked Naya from eastern Germany into the Netherlands and now FlandersThe first recorded wolf on Belgian soil for at least 100 years has made her bloody mark.Farmers in north-east Flanders have been put on high alert after evidence emerged that Naya, a female originally from eastern Germany that has been making a pioneering trek across Europe, had killed two sheep and injured a third near the Belgian town of Meerhout. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Pioneering female becomes first wolf in Belgium in a century

  22-01-2018 17:54 via theguardian.com
  Researchers have tracked Naya from eastern Germany into the Netherlands and now BelgiumThe first recorded wolf on Belgian soil for at least 100 years has made her bloody mark.Farmers in north-east Flanders have been put on high alert after evidence emerged that Naya, a female originally from eastern Germany that has been making a pioneering trek across Europe, had killed two sheep and injured a third near the Belgian town of Meerhout. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Fears for future of UK onshore wind power despite record growth

  22-01-2018 17:35 via theguardian.com
  2.6GW of capacity built in 2017 before subsidies ban industry says will make generation dearer
  A record amount of onshore wind power was built in the UK last year, but government policy has been stalling the sector and risked increasing energy bills for consumers, the industry has warned.Turbines capable of generating 2.6GW were installed across Britain in 2017 as developers rushed to meet the government deadline for securing subsidies. The previous record was 1.3GW in 2013. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Why you can't judge a zebra by its stripes

  22-01-2018 17:22 via bbc.co.uk
  Looking at a zebra's stripes may not be a good way to tell different types apart, say scientists.
  
  Read more

• Climate change linked to more flowery tropical forests, FSU study shows

  22-01-2018 17:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  New research from a Florida State University scientist has revealed a surprising relationship between surging atmospheric carbon dioxide and flower blooms in a remote tropical forest.
  
  Read more

• ISS cosmonaut does 'test flight' on a vacuum cleaner

  22-01-2018 17:18 via bbc.co.uk
  Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov said he had many questions from people asking if it was possible.
  
  Read more

• New Caledonian crows show how technology evolves

  22-01-2018 17:15 via bbc.co.uk
  Clever, tool-making crows show scientists the first foundations of technological development.
  
  Read more

• Climate Engineering, Once Started, Would Have Severe Impacts If Stopped

  22-01-2018 17:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  Facing a climate crisis, we may someday spray sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to form a cloud that cools the Earth, but suddenly stopping the spraying would have a severe global impact on animals and plants, according to the first study on the potential biological impacts of geoengineering, or climate intervention.
  
  Read more

• New Study Suggests Coastal and Deep Ocean Sharks Have Different Feeding Patterns

  22-01-2018 16:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  An international team of researchers studying globally declining shark populations report today that they used carbon isotopes as biochemical markers in shark muscle tissue to identify where in the oceans the mobile predators have been feeding, in the hope that such analyses provide a useful tool for conservation. Details appear in the current issue of Nature Ecology & Evolution.
  
  Read more

• Bournemouth University widens staff engagement programme after fall in energy and carbon levels

  22-01-2018 16:37
  Bournemouth University is rolling out an organisation-wide project to boost sustainable behaviour among employees after a successful pilot saw the institution slash energy consumption by 14.6% across active departments.
  
  Read more

• Report: 25,000 charging points needed across UK by 2030 to match EV demand

  22-01-2018 14:32
  An additional 25,000 charging points are required on the streets of Britain to meet the EV charging needs of 2030.
  
  Read more

• Scientists, volunteers rescue about 1,000 cold-stunned sea turtles

  22-01-2018 14:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  On the icy cold shores of Florida’s St. Joseph Bay, a team of volunteers and wildlife experts have rescued an estimated 1,000 cold-stunned sea turtles since January 2 in what is believed to be Florida’s second-largest mass cold-stunning event of the 21st century, according to U.S. Geological Survey research biologist Margaret Lamont. 
  
  Read more

• A climate science milestone on Colorado's Continental Divide

  22-01-2018 14:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  On January 16, 1968, in a bracing chill at 11,568 feet above sea level, a Colorado researcher collected an air sample at Niwot Ridge, on the doorstep of the Indian Peaks mountain range. The sample was carried down the mountain and then measured for carbon dioxide at a lab in Boulder, Colorado. The result: 322.4 parts per million.
  
  Read more

• Scotland launches £60m business fund for low-carbon innovations

  22-01-2018 13:57
  Businesses in Scotland can now access a £60m fund to scale projects that can help deliver the nation's low-carbon heat, energy and vehicle solutions.
  
  Read more

• Welsh coal mine set for geothermal transformation following £9.4m fund

  22-01-2018 13:31
  A council in Wales has been awarded £6.5m in European Union (EU) funds to explore how water from an underground mine can be used as a geothermal energy source to heat nearby homes.
  
  Read more

• Nike goes 100% renewable across North America

  22-01-2018 12:58
  Sportswear giant Nike is now more than half way towards its pledge to source 100% renewable energy globally, after signing a power purchase agreement with a Texan windfarm that will make the company's entire North American operations completely powered by renewables.
  
  Read more

• Switching to electric cars is key to fixing America's 'critically insufficient' climate policies | Dana Nuccitelli

  22-01-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Nearly 60% of US carbon pollution comes from power and transportation, and power is already decarbonizing fastIn order to meet its share of the carbon pollution cuts needed to achieve the 2°C Paris international climate target, America’s policies are rated as “critically insufficient” by the Climate Action Tracker. The Trump Administration has taken every possible step to undo the Obama Administration’s climate policies, including announcing that America will be the o
  
  Read more

• edie partners with the McCartneys' Meat Free Monday campaign for Sustainability Leaders Forum

  22-01-2018 10:20
  edie has partnered with Meat Free Monday - the awareness-raising campaign group founded by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney - for this week's Sustainability Leaders Forum, which is only serving meat-free meals to delegates.
  
  Read more

• The billionaire's guide to surviving global warming – with Ian the Climate Denialist Potato | First Dog on the Moon

  22-01-2018 07:13 via theguardian.com
  Here are some things you can do to make climate change even less inconvenient – also fun!Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• In its own ‘war on plastic’, the UK government is a deserter | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

  22-01-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The 25-year deadline spells doom for many ocean species. One supermarket’s pledge to ban plastics puts the target to shameThe prime minister has declared war on plastic, with an announcement that the government hopes to “eliminate all avoidable plastic waste” within 25 years. You could say that this week saw the first troops landing on our plastic-strewn beaches. But, rather than our ministers or MPs, they turned out to be the shelf-stackers and checkout workers of Iceland supe
  
  Read more

• Country diary: lowest land in Britain is unsettling in the gloom

  22-01-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Holme Fen, Cambridgeshire: The trunks tangle back from both sides of the track, like wiry hair, their bark papery. Packed dense, this makes the forest look grey and oddBritain’s highest highpoint is Ben Nevis. The lowest highpoint, if you like, is in what was Huntingdonshire: Boring Field, an old county top, at 81m above sea level. But hereabouts too is a mountain’s true inverse: the lowest lowpoint. The road to Holme Fen protrudes, like a fat plank thrown over a bog. You could fall
  
  Read more

• China: oil slick from sunken tanker trebles in size

  22-01-2018 06:19 via theguardian.com
  Iranian ship Sanchi went down carrying one million barrels of oil that is highly toxic to marine lifeThe spill from a sunken Iranian tanker off China’s east coast has more than trebled in size, just over a week after the ship sank in a ball of flames.
  Authorities by Sunday had surveyed three oil slicks with a total surface area of 332 sq km (128 square miles), compared with the 101 sq km seen last Wednesday, China’s State Oceanic Administration said in a statement. Continue reading..
  
  Read more

• Great Barrier Reef to get $60m rescue package from government

  22-01-2018 05:01 via theguardian.com
  Malcolm Turnbull announces $36.6m will be spent on ‘supporting farmers stopping runoff’ to improve water qualityMalcolm Turnbull has announced a $60m rescue package for the Great Barrier Reef which includes research on developing “resilient” coral, and paying farmers to pollute less.The package, to be spent over 18 months, will also include an increased number of reef officers and vessels targeting crown of thorns starfish outbreaks. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!