Environment news

• Terrawatch: clues of unexpected creatures in the ocean depths

  06-02-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Recently discovered fossil worm burrows reveal that, in the right sediment, life can survive far deeper than imaginedBlue Planet II gave us a glimpse of the weird and wonderful life that swims and floats in the deep ocean, but what about the creatures that live beneath the ocean floor? Present day surveys suggest that shrimps and worms inhabit the top tens of centimetres of seabed, but it was assumed that life couldn’t survive much beyond 2m of sediment. However, recently discovered fossil
  
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• The oddities sent into space

  06-02-2018 20:22 via bbc.co.uk
  A car, a golf ball, a pie... and other items items dispatched on cosmic journeys over the years.
  
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• Why the obsession with ‘calling it out’? | Brief letters

  06-02-2018 19:19 via theguardian.com
  Calling it out | The pill in the 1960s | From coffin to bookcase | Unseasonable birdsong | Aurochsen | Yorkshire pudThe House of Commons is celebrating the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918 as I write, and discussing the abuse of politicians, naturally. Almost unanimously they describe discussion of this activity as “calling it out”. How did this phrase suddenly achieve the status of exclusive political correctness? Three or four years ago it was never used in th
  
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• Vietnam jails activist for 14 years for livestreaming pollution march

  06-02-2018 18:16 via theguardian.com
  Hoang Duc Binh had posted footage on Facebook of fishermen protesting following a huge chemical spill from a steel plant A court in central Vietnam has sentenced an activist to 14 years in jail for livestreaming fishermen marching to file a lawsuit against a Taiwan-owned steel plant’s spill of toxins into the ocean. Hoang Duc Binh, 34, was convicted of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state, organisation and people, and opposing officers on duty, following a
  
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• Michael Gove spearheads MP group pledging to plastics phase-out

  06-02-2018 17:11
  More than 100 MPs, including Environment Secretary Michael Gove, have pledged to reduce single-use plastic consumption within their local constituencies, after committing to Sky Ocean Rescue's #PassOnPlastic pledge.
  
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• BP aims to invest more in renewables and clean energy

  06-02-2018 17:01 via theguardian.com
  Boss says his industry is changing but ‘the world is going to need oil and gas for decades’BP has declared it is looking to acquire more green energy firms, as the British oil giant pledged to set carbon targets for its operations.However, while the chief executive, Bob Dudley, said the industry was in a period of major change, he made clear that hydrocarbons would remain the core of BP’s business. Continue reading...
  
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• Edinburgh University divests from all fossil fuels

  06-02-2018 13:38 via theguardian.com
  Move makes it the largest university fund in the UK to ditch all coal, oil and gas holdings, following a long student campaignThe University of Edinburgh is dumping all its fossil fuel investments, making it the largest UK university endowment fund to be completely free of all coal, oil and gas holdings.
  The decision was announced on Monday and followed a long student campaign. More than 60 UK universities have now divested from fossil fuels, with the University of Sussex the latest to make the
  
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• Winds of change: Seven key statistics of Europe's booming offshore wind industry

  06-02-2018 12:51
  A new report released today (6 February) from WindEurope highlights a record year for Europe and UK offshore wind projects. Diving into the data, edie brings you seven surprising statistics, from the continent's booming offshore industry.
  
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• Humans need to become smarter thinkers to beat climate denial | Dana Nuccitelli

  06-02-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  A new paper shows that climate myths consistently fail critical thinking testsClimate myths are often contradictory – it’s not warming, though it’s warming because of the sun, and really it’s all just an ocean cycle – but they all seem to share one thing in common: logical fallacies and reasoning errors. John Cook, Peter Ellerton, and David Kinkead have just published a paper in Environmental Research Letters in which they examined 42 common climate myths and found
  
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• Country diary: blackbird song is all the better for its thievery

  06-02-2018 11:54 via theguardian.com
  Claxton, Norfolk: The song thrush is a much more frequent borrower of other birds’ sounds but, like all great artists, blackbirds will steal on occasions Continue reading...
  
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• University of Winchester targets carbon reductions through behaviour change programme

  06-02-2018 11:25
  Following a successful four-month trial, the University of Winchester has rolled out a behaviour change programme to all staff members in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and boost wellbeing.
  
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• London City Airport implements plastic straw ban

  06-02-2018 10:21
  London City Airport has become the first airport in the UK to place an outright ban on plastic straws across food and drink outlets on its premises, instead obliging outlets to use biodegradable straws available on request.
  
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• SkyPixel aerial photography contest winners 2017 – in pictures

  06-02-2018 08:35 via theguardian.com
  SkyPixel has announced the winners of its annual aerial photography competition and the results are breathtaking. The contest, which ran from October to December, received more than 44,000 submissions from people in 141 countries, across the categories of landscape, portrait and story. The grand prize was awarded to Florian Ledoux, a photographer from France, who captured a polar bear jumping across ice floes in Nunavut, Canada Continue reading...
  
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• I got 'doored' while undertaking on my bike. Was it my fault?

  06-02-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Helen Pidd was cycling through stationary traffic when a passenger opened his door into her pathAs soon as the car door hit me I thought: finally. After cycling regularly for 15 years it always seemed something of a miracle that I had never been knocked off.My second instinct was to feel sheepish. Was it my fault? Continue reading...
  
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• UK built half of Europe's offshore wind power in 2017

  06-02-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Capacity is growing fast and turbines getting bigger – some almost as large as the ShardBritain accounted for more than half of the new offshore wind power capacity built in Europe last year, as the sector broke installation records across the continent. Continue reading...
  
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• Ozone layer not recovering over populated areas, scientists warn

  06-02-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  While the hole over Antarctica has been closing, the protective ozone is thinning at the lower latitudes, where the sunlight is stronger and billions of people live The ozone layer that protects people from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation is not recovering over most highly populated regions, scientists warned on Tuesday.The greatest losses in ozone occurred over Antarctica but the hole there has been closing since the chemicals causing the problem were banned by the Montreal protocol. But
  
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• How Tesla's big battery is bringing Australia’s gas cartel to heel

  06-02-2018 03:40 via theguardian.com
  South Australia’s big gamble on grid-scale battery storage may pay for itself in just a year if it continues to prevent massive price spikes • Giles Parkinson is editor of RenewEconomy On Sunday 14 January something very unusual happened.The Australian Energy Market Operator called – as it often does – for generators in South Australia to provide a modest amount of network services known as FCAS, or frequency control and ancillary services. Continue reading...
  
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• Dinosaurs ‘too successful for their own good’

  06-02-2018 02:42 via bbc.co.uk
  A study modelling how dinosaurs spread worldwide shows they may have been a victim of their own success.
  
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• Elon Musk's huge Falcon Heavy rocket set for launch

  06-02-2018 02:40 via bbc.co.uk
  The entrepreneur will attempt to fly the world's most powerful rocket with his own Tesla as payload.
  
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• New Zealand female-only stick insect produces 'rogue' male in UK

  06-02-2018 02:08 via theguardian.com
  The specimen, which was discovered by an insect enthusiast in Cornwall, could mean the animal is ready to start having sexA species of New Zealand stick insect that was thought to produce only females has hatched a rogue male in the UK countryside – and scientists say the rare event could mean the animal is ready to start having sex.Scientists at Massey University in New Zealand said they were “disbelieving” when colleagues in the UK reported they had found a male of the Acanth
  
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• Western Australia chemical plants threaten 40,000-year-old rock art

  06-02-2018 02:01 via theguardian.com
  Senate inquiry has heard conflicting evidence on the impact of gas, ammonium and fertiliser plants on the Burrup PeninsulaOn a far flung peninsula halfway up the coast of Western Australia are strange piles of cubic boulders that look like rusty refrigerators and boxes. Decorating their flat faces are more than one million rock carvings, some believed to be as much as 40,000 years old.The petroglyphs at the Burrup Peninsula, also known as Murujuga by the traditional custodians, are Australia&rsq
  
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