Environment news

• Snowy Hydro: NSW and Victoria to sell their stakes to federal government

  01-03-2018 22:38 via theguardian.com
  Deal worth $6bn allows Malcolm Turnbull to proceed with plan to expand hydro to boost east coast gridThe federal government has reached an agreement to buy the stakes held by New South Wales and Victoria in the Snowy Hydro project for $6bn.The agreement, clinched late on Thursday by Malcolm Turnbull, allows the federal government to proceed with its $4.5bn plan to expand Snowy Hydro to benefit the east coast electricity grid. Related: Snowy Hydro 2.0 is viable but will cost billions more than pr
  
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• Pollutionwatch: wood burning is not climate friendly

  01-03-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Burning wood releases more CO2 than gas, oil and even coal for the same amount of heat, so to make it climate neutral we need an increase in forestsWith snow on the ground, many people will have been huddling around a wood fire, but researchers are questioning if wood burning is really climate neutral. Burning wood is not CO2 free; it releases carbon, stored over the previous decades, in one quick burst. For an equal amount of heat or electricity, it releases more CO2 than burning gas, oil and e
  
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• Gove lambasts water company chiefs

  01-03-2018 20:28 via bbc.co.uk
  The Environment Secretary attacks water industry bosses' salaries and lack of investment.
  
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• The Guardian view on snow and ice: it’s too cold here but too warm in the Arctic | Editorial

  01-03-2018 19:38 via theguardian.com
  When does weather turn into climate? The cold snap in Britain and Europe may be a sign of really dangerous change elsewhereThe weather is extremely worrying. It has never been so warm for so long at this time of year before and it is just possible that the effects will be catastrophic. We are talking, of course, about the Arctic, where over vast areas of frozen sea the temperatures are higher than they are in Britain today. A blast of winter in Britain and across much of northern Europ
  
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• Cotton company reaped $52m windfall in sale of water rights to government

  01-03-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Deal with Eastern Australia Agriculture raises, which was done without a tender, raises questions over taxpayer valueOne of Australia’s largest cotton companies, Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA), sold water rights to the federal government in July last year for $79m and then booked a $52m gain on the sale.The deal, which was done without tender, will raise questions about whether the government paid over the odds for the water in southern Queensland. Continue reading...
  
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• Kenyan conservationists protest as Chinese company starts work on railway

  01-03-2018 17:53 via theguardian.com
  Wildlife Direct says building work inside Nairobi’s famed national park defies court order Kenyan conservationists have expressed outrage at the construction of a railway line inside Nairobi’s famed national park, saying this defied a court order halting the project.
  A proposed extension of the Chinese-built railway – Kenya’s biggest infrastructure project since independence – through the vast wildlife reserve on the outskirts of Nairobi has been tied up in legal ba
  
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• Online food delivery services commit to plastics takeaway

  01-03-2018 14:57
  The war on plastics has entered the rapidly growing online food delivery sector, with industry competitors Deliveroo and Just Eat both making pledges today (1 March) to cut down the amount of plastic packaging used by customers.
  
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• Claire Perry: Clean growth objectives can only be delivered at local level

  01-03-2018 12:54
  Climate Minister Claire Perry has said the public sector can be an "incredible agent for change" by leveraging local expertise to find the right solutions to drive the UK's low-carbon economy.
  
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• Sir Richard Branson: Commercial low-carbon jet fuel 'within touching distance'

  01-03-2018 12:24
  A decade on from Virgin Atlantic's first commercial flight using low-carbon fuel mix, the company's founder Sir Richard Branson believes that government incentives can help scale-up sustainable fuel use at a price on par with traditional aviation fuels.
  
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• Swarm of starlings causes 'roadblock' in Norfolk

  01-03-2018 12:09 via bbc.co.uk
  The birds were captured at about 14:30 GMT on Wednesday at Flitcham, near King's Lynn.
  
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• Decisions today will decide Antarctic ice sheet loss and sea level rise | Dana Nuccitelli

  01-03-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  A new study finds that waiting 5 extra years to peak carbon pollution will cost 20 cm sea level rise
  A new study published in Nature looks at how much global sea level will continue to rise even if we manage to meet the Paris climate target of staying below 2°C hotter than pre-industrial temperatures. The issue is that sea levels keep rising for several hundred years after we stabilize temperatures, largely due to the continued melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland from the heat
  
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• Actions today will decide Antarctic ice sheet loss and sea level rise | Dana Nuccitelli

  01-03-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  A new study finds that waiting 5 extra years to peak carbon pollution will cost 20 cm sea level rise
  A new study published in Nature looks at how much global sea level will continue to rise even if we manage to meet the Paris climate target of staying below 2°C hotter than pre-industrial temperatures. The issue is that sea levels keep rising for several hundred years after we stabilize temperatures, largely due to the continued melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland from the heat
  
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• EU-backed carbon capture utilisation plant opens in UK

  01-03-2018 11:19
  The UK's first carbon capture demonstrator plant has opened today (1 March), providing a new treatment that can convert carbon dioxide into polyol compounds that can be used in various manufacturing processes.
  
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• Improving children's access to nature starts with addressing inequality

  01-03-2018 08:30 via theguardian.com
  Barriers to outside play particularly affect children from low income and BAME households. Can education help? With children now better at identifying Pokémon characters than common species of British plants and wildlife, there are concerns that we are increasingly losing touch with nature. In January, the UK government announced it would set £10m aside for outdoor learning – part of a 25-year environment plan that includes a pledge to “encourage children to be close to
  
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• Brazil dam disaster: firm knew of potential impact months in advance

  01-03-2018 07:55 via theguardian.com
  Unreported documents show mining company was aware of threat before country’s worst environmental disaster – but firm failed to take action, prosecutors allegeSix months before a dam containing millions of litres of mining waste collapsed, killing 19 people in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, the company operating the mine accurately predicted the potential impact of such a disaster in a worst-case risk assessment.But federal prosecutors claim the company – a joint
  
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• Shorten says Adani mine decision will be made when Labor is in government

  01-03-2018 07:51 via theguardian.com
  ‘Labor does not rip up contracts, and we don’t create sovereign risk,’ leader says, in cooling of recent commentsBill Shorten says Labor will make a decision about the future of the controversial Adani coalmine when it next wins government rather than taking any concrete position imminently, and will not rip up contracts or create sovereign risk.
  In a significant cooling of his recent public signalling on the Adani project, a statement issued by Shorten’s office on Thursd
  
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• Nature showing early signs of spring despite cold snap

  01-03-2018 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Woodland Trust records show more evidence that spring is arriving earlier in the UKWinter in the UK has become a landscape of yellow hawthorn, the orange flash of red admiral butterflies, blackbirds nesting, and bumblebees feeding on mauve chives, pink valerian and lavender.Before the white-out of snow which covered much of the country on Wednesday, reports by the Woodland Trust charity showed yet more evidence that spring is arriving earlier and earlier.Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: the magic of moss

  01-03-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Rokeby Park, Teesdale: It’s tempting to let the imagination wander into the deepest recesses of the wildwood of mossesWith winter almost over it’s tempting to hunker down during these last cold days and focus on the prospect of primroses and bluebells, but there is beauty to be found now in lowlier forms of plant life. Many woodland and grassland mosses begin new growth while it is still too cold for trees to leaf and grass to grow, before they can be cast into deep shade by surround
  
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• Africa 'set to miss UN development goal on malnutrition'

  01-03-2018 04:47 via bbc.co.uk
  At current rates of progress no African country will meet the UN goal set for 2030, a study reveals.
  
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• 'Oldest tattoo' found on 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies

  01-03-2018 04:46 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers discover the oldest figurative tattoos in the world on two mummies from Egypt.
  
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• Blizzard survival skills: Building a snow hole

  01-03-2018 01:42 via bbc.co.uk
  In the Cairngorms National Park Jo Whalley learns what to do if you become lost in a blizzard.
  
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• Scarcer snow?

  01-03-2018 01:34 via bbc.co.uk
  In the UK, there is evidence to suggest that snowfall has decreased over the past few decades. Worldwide, it's a more complicated picture.
  
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