Environment news

• Weatherwatch: floating windfarms prove their worth

  21-02-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Potential for floating windfarms is huge, as many countries have windy sites close to shoreFloating windfarms are likely to be the next large-scale development in renewable energy. The first Hywind Scotland, developed by the Norwegian state oil giant, Statoil, has proved a greater success than its designers hoped. The five giant six-megawatt turbines, 25 miles east of Peterhead, produced more power than expected in the first three months and withstood hurricane-force winds and giant waves. The p
  
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• The humble 'bin chicken' is helping science understand the Tyrannosaurus rex – video

  21-02-2018 20:20 via theguardian.com
  The Australian white ibis, AKA the 'bin chicken', might not have won the title of Australia's favourite bird, but its next race might help scientists understand how dinosaurs walked and ran Continue reading...
  
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• Ancient Britons 'replaced' by newcomers

  21-02-2018 19:12 via bbc.co.uk
  Britain's Stone Age population was almost completely replaced some 4,500 years ago, a study shows.
  
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• Air pollution: UK government loses third court case as plans ruled 'unlawful'

  21-02-2018 18:04 via theguardian.com
  High court says approach to tackling pollution in 45 local authority areas is ‘not sufficient’ and orders urgent changesFor the third time, the UK government has been slammed by the courts for failing to produce an adequate plan to tackle the growing problem of air pollution, in a landmark judgment that will force ministers back to the drawing board in their efforts to clean up dirty urban air.The high court ruled that the government’s current policy on air pollution was &ldquo
  
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• Calling citizen scientists: more data needed to protect echidnas

  21-02-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  These masters of disguise are some of the world’s oldest surviving mammals, but they are threatened by habitat loss, traffic and feral cats – and they need our helpThey may be one of the world’s oldest surviving mammals – around for at least 25m years – but scientists don’t know much about echidnas. Now researchers believe the remaining Australian population may be threatened and they need citizen scientists’ help to save them.Related: 'Fantasy documents
  
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• National Farmers' Union elects first female president

  21-02-2018 17:47 via theguardian.com
  Minette Batters becomes first woman to hold top job since NFU was founded in 1908The National Farmers’ Union has elected Minette Batters as the first female president in the organisation’s 110-year history.Batters, a Wiltshire beef, sheep and arable farmer who has also diversified her business into weddings and catering, was previously the NFU’s deputy president. Continue reading...
  
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• Sustainability index reveals North-South divide among local authorities

  21-02-2018 17:16
  A new report has exposed a divergence in the sustainability performance of local authorities across the country, with London boroughs generally outperforming Northern regions in areas such as waste and energy consumption.
  
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• Billy Graham was on the wrong side of history | Matthew Avery Sutton

  21-02-2018 16:51 via theguardian.com
  Racial tensions are rising, the earth is warming, and evangelicals are doing little to help. That may be Graham’s most significant, and saddest, legacyWhen Billy Graham stands before the judgment seat of God, he may finally realize how badly he failed his country, and perhaps his God. On civil rights and the environmental crisis, the most important issues of his lifetime, he championed the wrong policies.Graham was on the wrong side of history. Continue reading...
  
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• ClientEarth wins third legal battle against Government's 'shambolic' air quality policies

  21-02-2018 15:43
  The High Court has once again ruled that the UK Government's efforts to combat toxic air pollution are unlawful, marking the third time that environmental law firm ClientEarth have won a court case against ministers.
  
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• High court rules UK air pollution plans 'unlawful'

  21-02-2018 14:29 via theguardian.com
  Government loses third court case as judge says approach to tackling pollution in 45 local authority areas is ‘not sufficient’The government will have to do more to tackle illegal levels of air pollution after a high court judge ruled its current plans are “unlawful”. Mr Justice Garnham told the London court on Wednesday the approach to tackling pollution in 45 local authority areas was “not sufficient”.Continue reading...
  
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• Government loses clean air court case

  21-02-2018 14:07 via bbc.co.uk
  Campaigners win a third High Court victory over the UK government's plans to tackle air pollution.
  
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• Tasmanian tiger 'joeys' revealed in 3D

  21-02-2018 13:49 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists scan Tasmanian tiger specimens to better understand the marsupial's development in the pouch.
  
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• Mission Possible survey: How are YOU going to achieve a sustainable future?

  21-02-2018 13:30
  edie is calling on all sustainability, energy and environment professionals and experts to take part in a short survey which will help inform a flagship report investigating business progress towards achieving a sustainable future.
  
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• How are YOU going to achieve a sustainable future? Take the Mission Possible survey

  21-02-2018 13:30
  edie is calling on all sustainability, energy and environment professionals and experts to take part in a short survey which will help inform a flagship report investigating business progress towards achieving a sustainable future.
  
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• Red tape in the meat industry? It's the difference between life and death

  21-02-2018 13:16 via theguardian.com
  Without regulations that scrutinise food standards and trade deals, we cannot trust the safety of the food on our platesIt should come as no surprise that the global meat industry is a major source of disease and crime. We are talking about a substance of animal origin, inherently alive with risky micro-organisms, necessitating expensive traceability and investment to make it safe, and worth hundreds of billions of dollars in global trade.But in the UK, regulation is increasingly underfunded. Me
  
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• 'Dirty meat': Shocking hygiene failings discovered in US pig and chicken plants

  21-02-2018 13:16 via theguardian.com
  Previously unseen government records detail ‘deeply worrying’ incidents in pork and poultry plants, raising fears of ‘dirty meat’ entering the UK under a post-Brexit trade dealShocking hygiene failings have been discovered in some of the US’s biggest meat plants, as a new analysis reveals that as many as 15% (one in seven) of the US population suffers from foodborne illnesses annually. A joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Gu
  
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• BP Energy Outlook: Renewables will grow five-fold by 2040

  21-02-2018 11:40
  Renewable energy sources and electric vehicles are expected to be some of the biggest forces shaping the global energy transition up to 2040, according to an annual report from BP.
  
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• Greens use Labor's Adani indecision to ramp up Batman campaign

  21-02-2018 08:20 via theguardian.com
  Activists seize upon Labor’s contradictory messages on Queensland coalmine in battle for inner-city MelbourneThe Greens will use Labor’s failure to make an unequivocal statement on whether it will oppose the Adani coalmine to ramp up campaign efforts in the Melbourne electorate of Batman.
  With the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, this week telling Queensland voters that coal had a future and that scepticism about the Adani project did not equate to scepticism about the coal industry as a
  
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• Baby Belle, the hand-reared rhino

  21-02-2018 06:41 via bbc.co.uk
  Belle needed treatment for an injured leg and is Cotswold Wildlife Park's first hand-reared white rhino calf.
  
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• Country diary: no miners emerge from the dark to break the peace today

  21-02-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Luckett, Tamar Valley: Vegetation hides the extensive spoil heaps and the midday sun gilds catkins on sprawling hazelsOn the north side of Kit Hill, remnants of last night’s hail lie beside the steep road leading to the old mining settlement of Luckett. A solitary stack in a field above Deer Park Farm used to vent poisonous arsenic fumes from works in the valley below; down there, beside abandoned mine workings, dilapidated single-storey dwellings have been mooted as a mining museum. Conti
  
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• Tasmanian tiger joey 3D scans may unlock evolutionary mystery

  21-02-2018 01:54 via theguardian.com
  CT scans of thylacine specimens are being used to investigate why they resembled dogs despite last sharing an ancestor 160m years agoJoeys of thylacines, or Tasmanian tigers, look much like the young of every other marsupial: bald, pink, and with pronounced forelimbs and jaws for crawling into their mother’s pouch and latching on to a teat.So it’s perhaps not surprising that, in the 200-year history of collecting and cataloguing various thylacine specimens for museum exhibits, there
  
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• All in on renewable energy: Jay Weatherill to ramp up SA target to 75%

  21-02-2018 01:52 via theguardian.com
  South Australian premier also promises country’s first renewable energy storage target in a ‘rejection of the federal government’s approach’The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, has gone all in on the state’s transition to renewable energy, promising to lift the state-based renewable energy target from 50% to 75% by 2025 and to introduce the country’s first renewable energy storage target.A re-elected Labor government would set a target that 25% of the
  
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• Climate change 'will push European cities towards breaking point'

  21-02-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Study highlights urgent need to adapt urban areas to cope with floods, droughts and heatwavesMajor British towns and cities, including Glasgow, Wrexham, Aberdeen and Chester, could be much more severely affected by climate change than previously thought, according to new research.The study, by Newcastle University, analysed changes in flooding, droughts and heatwaves for every European city using all climate models. Continue reading...
  
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