Environment news

• Plantwatch: seagrass meadows are vital – but in serious decline

  20-02-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Seagrass shelters fish and acts against erosion and climate change, but is under threatMeadows of seagrass are one of our great but sorely neglected wild plant spectacles. This humble plant spreads out in lush green carpets that can stretch for miles around much of Britain’s coast. There they shelter young fish and shellfish, as well as protecting against erosion of the coast by storms and floods, by trapping sediment in their roots.And the seagrass meadows also play a big part in fighting
  
  Read more

• Airlines sound alarm over 'blank cheque' for Heathrow third runway

  20-02-2018 20:16 via theguardian.com
  Bosses from British Airways, Virgin and easyJet urge MPs to secure pledge on cost before voteThe true cost of Heathrow expansion is likely to be “grossly” higher than the £14.3bn the airport has cited, airlines have told MPs, adding that transparency and guarantees should be supplied ahead of a crucial vote. Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, British Airways’ parent company and the main operator at Heathrow, said parliament should not trust Heathrow and said he had &ld
  
  Read more

• We’re entitled to eat safe meat. Why has that become such a lottery? | Felicity Lawrence

  20-02-2018 20:03 via theguardian.com
  As meat products are withdrawn from sale, and cash-strapped councils struggle to enforce standards, the regulatory system is breaking downHere we go again: all the signs of another scandal involving meat and food safety. The first stirrings were in January, and while the authorities seem to have kept the lid on it for the moment, it has the feel of previous crises over food supply that have erupted after initial rumblings. There is confusion about what’s actually happened, and arguments ov
  
  Read more

• City of London energy-efficient lighting plans to save £500,000 each year

  20-02-2018 16:41
  The Square Mile is set to benefit from a new lighting strategy that will aim to complement historic buildings, improve energy usage and help tackle light pollution in the area.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• City of London energy-efficient lighting plans to save £500,000 a year

  20-02-2018 16:41
  The Square Mile is set to benefit from a new lighting strategy that will aim to complement historic buildings, improve energy usage and help tackle light pollution in the area.
  
  Read more

• Plastic bans worldwide will dent oil demand growth, says BP

  20-02-2018 15:31 via theguardian.com
  But oil giant expects demand for crude to grow and not peak until late 2030sBans around the world on single use plastic items such as carrier bags will dent growth in oil demand over the next two decades, according to BP.However, the UK-headquartered oil and gas firm said it still expects the global hunger for crude to grow for years and not peak until the late 2030s. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• ING and European Investment Bank invest €300m to finance green shipping

  20-02-2018 15:23
  Dutch bank ING and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have teamed up to create a new €300m facility to support green investments in the shipping sector.
  
  Read more

• Burn or bury

  20-02-2018 12:55 via bbc.co.uk
  Since China refused last month to accept any more foreign waste for recycling, the UK is facing a challenge disposing of its plastic waste.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• How Twinings is championing women's rights in the tea supply chain

  20-02-2018 12:31
  EXCLUSIVE: Twinings' decision to increase its funding initiative with UNICEF for vulnerable tea farmers in Assam was built on a belief that improving skills, health and wellbeing is critical to securing the long-term security of the supply chain, the company's head of social impact has revealed.
  
  Read more

• 'Frictionless' EU trade is vital post-Brexit for UK farming to survive

  20-02-2018 12:12 via theguardian.com
  Farming union president Meurig Raymond takes veiled swipe at Liam Fox’s ‘cheap food policy’ at NFU conferenceTrade with the EU after Brexit needs to be “frictionless” if the UK’s food and farming sectors are to survive the transition, the president of the National Farmers Union has said at the opening of the NFU’s conference.Meurig Raymond, who farms a large acreage of mixed arable and livestock in Wales, said: “We must have frictionless trade with
  
  Read more

• 'Sloppy and careless': courts call out Trump blitzkrieg on environmental rules

  20-02-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  A cascade of courtroom standoffs are beginning to slow, and even reverse, the EPA rollbacks thanks to the administration’s ‘disregard for the law’In its first year in office, the Trump administration introduced a solitary new environmental rule aimed at protecting the public from pollution. It was aimed not at sooty power plants or emissions-intensive trucks, but dentists.
  Every year, dentists fill Americans’ tooth cavities with an amalgam that includes mercury. Around 5m
  
  Read more

• Scientists race to explore Antarctic marine life revealed by giant iceberg

  20-02-2018 11:37 via theguardian.com
  British Antarctic Survey is trying to reach a newly revealed ecosystem that had been hidden for 120,000 years below the Larsen C ice shelfA team of international scientists is due to set off for the world’s biggest iceberg on Wednesday, fighting huge waves and the encroaching Antarctic winter, in a mission aiming to answer fundamental questions about the impact of climate change in the polar regions.
  The scientists, led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), are trying to reach a newly rev
  
  Read more

• EU can double renewables and boost economy, report finds

  20-02-2018 11:28
  A cost-effective approach to integration with the European Union (EU) could help the bloc double the percentage of renewable energy that it uses, while bringing Member States in line with a collective goal to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030.
  
  Read more

• Roman boxing gloves unearthed by Vindolanda dig

  20-02-2018 08:56 via bbc.co.uk
  The bands of leather are "probably the only known surviving examples" of their kind.
  
  Read more

• Ikea joins Big Clean Switch to offer 100% renewable energy tariff

  20-02-2018 08:01 via theguardian.com
  Joint venture claims cheaper green power could save UK households £300 a year Ikea is calling for households to join its latest joint venture – a collective energy switch that promises an exclusive 100% renewable electricity tariff.The furniture retailer has joined forces with the “Big Clean Switch” campaign to use a collective switch to secure cheaper green power for the households that sign up.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• It's time football started to take cycling seriously | Robin Ireland

  20-02-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Few clubs cater for fans who choose to cycle to the ground, but simple changes could help reduce traffic jams and pollution on match daysI am a football fan and I am a cyclist. These identities do not need to be mutually exclusive – so why is it often such a challenge to go to the game by bike?I support Norwich City and I live in Liverpool, which is the first hurdle. Liverpool is 238 miles away from Norwich, and the direct train takes more than five hours. Because of this, I have pretty mu
  
  Read more

• Problem-solving could be key to grey squirrels' success, study finds

  20-02-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Research in UK shows invasive species bests native red squirrels in complex tasksThe ability to solve problems may explain why grey squirrels are thriving at the expense of native red ones in the UK, research suggests.Wild greys and reds were presented with an easy task (opening a transparent lid) and a difficult version (a more complex process of pushing and pulling levers) to get hazelnuts. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• ‘People think the deer are lovely. Then they learn more about it’: the deer cull dilemma

  20-02-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The Scottish Highlands have a deer problem. Is shooting tens of thousands of them the only solution? By Cal FlynWhen we arrive at the cottage, they are already there, watching us from high on the crags overlooking the water. The five of us are still tasting the chill, stale air of the empty building and staking claims on stained mattresses when Julien spots a silhouette through the warped pane of the back window. “They’re up there now,” he says. “Let’s go.”A m
  
  Read more

• Country diary: a kind of heaven in avian form

  20-02-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Shapwick, Somerset: Hundreds of thousands of starlings reduced by distance and number to something like smokeIn any other place a great white egret passing overhead would have commanded all our attention. The national breeding total for this species was just seven pairs in 2017. Here, however, at dusk it was an incidental detail, a stately white shape rowing quietly through the binoculars’ orbit, as we focused on something far more captivating. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Trees for Trump: one million plants pledged to offset U-turn on climate change

  20-02-2018 05:58 via theguardian.com
  Environmentalists say forest the size of Kentucky could compensate for ‘monumental stupidity’ of US withdrawal from Paris climate agreementMore than one million trees have been pledged for Trump Forest, a bid by environmentalists to offset the US president’s curtailing of Obama-era clean energy initiatives by planting 10 billion trees around the globe. “US president Donald Trump doesn’t believe in the science of human-caused climate change,” reads the website
  
  Read more

• Origins of land plants pushed back in time

  20-02-2018 05:23 via bbc.co.uk
  Plants appeared on land 100 million years earlier than previously thought, according to new research.
  
  Read more

• Faster reproduction could hold key to saving critically endangered frog

  20-02-2018 02:48 via theguardian.com
  Researchers believe introducing frogs to lower elevation areas would help them reach sexual maturity earlierResearchers are hoping to increase the population of one of Australia’s most endangered frogs by helping them reach sexual maturity earlier.The number of wild northern corroboree frogs, which are only found in cold, mountainous areas of the ACT and New South Wales, has been in sharp decline, mostly due to chytrid fungus. The fungus causes an infectious disease that is killing frogs a
  
  Read more

• Ocean plastic tide 'violates the law'

  20-02-2018 02:20 via bbc.co.uk
  Campaigners may want new laws to fight pollution but the remedies already exist, a new report argues.
  
  Read more

• 'Much work needed' to make digital economy environmentally sustainable

  20-02-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  MPs cast doubt on whether energy efficiency gains can keep offsetting rising power demandA cross-party group of MPs has raised doubts over whether the growing energy demand from digital technology and the proliferation of internet-connected gadgets can continue to be offset by energy efficiency improvements.More efficient smartphones, networking gear and data centres have so far largely staved off increased power demand from the internet and computing – which now accounts for about 6% of g
  
  Read more

• Brexit must not lead to fall in farming standards, warns NFU

  20-02-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Farmers’ union fears impact of deals with US and calls for ‘frictionless trade’ with EU
  The government must not allow farming standards to slip or be undermined by bad trade deals after Brexit, the National Farmers’ Union has said in a reference to fears that food standards will be sacrificed to seal deals with the US. Those who advocate a “cheap food policy” should bear in mind the price that is paid in terms of standards, traceability of produce and shifting
  
  Read more

• A less timid version of Justin Trudeau won’t cut it. The NDP must be bolder | Martin Lukacs

  20-02-2018 00:29 via theguardian.com
  To challenge the Liberals, Jagmeet Singh will have to overthrow Canada’s neoliberal consensusAt the New Democratic Party’s convention this weekend in Ottawa, their new leader Jagmeet Singh declared “the time to be timid was over.” For a party whose shambling meekness in the last election let Justin Trudeau claim the mantle of progressive champion, such a shift could not come sooner. That an opportunity exists to capitalize on enormous hunger for change is apparent. Trudea
  
  Read more

• France to let wolf population grow despite farmers' fears

  20-02-2018 00:18 via bbc.co.uk
  The government wants the number to rise from 360 to 500 by 2023 but farmers are unhappy.
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!