Environment news

• Britain on course for £20bn subsidy-free renewables 'revolution'

  22-03-2018 23:51
  Britain is on the brink of a subsidy-free renewables "revolution" which could create up to 18GW of new capacity by 2030 and attract £20 billion of investment, analysts have claimed.
  
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• It’s time we listened to people like Mark Boyle | Letters

  22-03-2018 19:16 via theguardian.com
  If we are to reduce our consumption levels, says Linda Marriott, we must walk the walk, not just talk the talkBravo, Mark Boyle – your world sounds very beguiling to an oldie like me (I left a troubled world behind. Now let me tell you how to fix it, 20 March). However, I’ve lost count of the number of times in my life that I have heard this siren song, but no one with any influence ever seems to listen or even wake up. But, as Mark says, we can try small remedies ourselves should we
  
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• Origin of 'six-inch mummy' confirmed

  22-03-2018 19:03 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists investigate an unusual, small, mummified skeleton from Chile to establish its medical history.
  
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• 'Dead zone' in Gulf of Mexico will take decades to recover from farm pollution

  22-03-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  A new study says that even in the ‘unrealistic’ event of a total halt to the flow of agricultural chemicals the damage will persist for 30 yearsThe enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico will take decades to recover even if the flow of farming chemicals that is causing the damage is completely halted, new research has warned. Continue reading...
  
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• Warning of power shortfall risk after closure of Liddell plant

  22-03-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  NSW will need extra generation capacity unless AGL rolls out all three stages of its transition Australia’s energy market operator says an additional 850 megawatts of dispatchable generation capacity will be needed in New South Wales after the closure of the ageing Liddell power plant if AGL Energy fails to complete all three stages of its transition plan.Last December AGL confirmed it would close Liddell in 2022 and replace the coal plant with a mix of renewables, gas power for peak perio
  
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• Coalition accuses green groups of misleading public on forestry agreements

  22-03-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Anne Ruston says National Parks Association “engaged in a campaign to mislead the Australian people” after groups make public submissions on RFAs The government has accused green groups of deliberately misleading the Australian people by raising concerns about the roll over of long term logging agreements.Related: NSW Labor refuses to approve forestry agreements based on 'out-of-date' scienceContinue reading...
  
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• 'Great Pacific garbage patch' sprawling with far more debris than thought

  22-03-2018 15:59 via theguardian.com
  The patch of detritus is more than twice the size of France and is up to 16 times larger than previously estimatedAn enormous area of rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean is teeming with far more debris than previously thought, heightening alarm that the world’s oceans are being increasingly choked by trillions of pieces of plastic. Continue reading...
  
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• Plastic patch in Pacific Ocean growing rapidly, study shows

  22-03-2018 15:12 via bbc.co.uk
  It is estimated some 80,000 tonnes of plastic is circulating in a patch between Hawaii and California.
  
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• NatWest delivers £3.5bn low-carbon lending in three years

  22-03-2018 13:57
  Banking giant NatWest has pledged to deliver of £10bn lending to UK renewable energy and energy efficiency projects by 2020, having provided £3.5bn over the past three years.
  
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• World Water Day: Deadly plight of Brazil's river defenders goes unheard

  22-03-2018 12:55 via theguardian.com
  At a high-level talking shop for the global water industry in Brazil, river defenders and community activists - who are often murdered or criminalised for trying to protect their resources - have set up an alternative forum to share their stories
  While presidents, royalty and corporate dignitaries gave speeches at a global conference in Brasil’s federal capital this week on the need to protect water sources, river defender Ageu Lobo Pereira was running for his life through the Amazon fores
  
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• Guyanese campaigners mount legal challenge against three oil giants

  22-03-2018 12:48 via theguardian.com
  Crowdfunded case claims offshore oil licences were granted illegally by the Guyanese governmentThree major oil companies preparing to drill off the shores of Guyana, where a string of discoveries have sparked a rush for crude, are being challenged by a group of citizens who say their dash for oil is illegal.Lawyers acting for the Guyanese campaigners are to lodge the latest challenge in a court in Guyana this week. They are funding the battle against oil giants Exxon Mobil, Hess Corporation and
  
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• Paul Ehrlich: 'Collapse of civilisation is a near certainty within decades'

  22-03-2018 12:30 via theguardian.com
  Fifty years after the publication of his controversial book The Population Bomb, biologist Paul Ehrlich warns overpopulation and overconsumption are driving us over the edgeA shattering collapse of civilisation is a “near certainty” in the next few decades due to humanity’s continuing destruction of the natural world that sustains all life on Earth, according to biologist Prof Paul Ehrlich.In May, it will be 50 years since the eminent biologist published his most famous and con
  
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• 'Radical change' needed on countryside

  22-03-2018 12:20 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK government is failing rural communities and the natural environment, a report says.
  
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• World Water Day: Top brands and retailers sign up to new Courtauld 2025 water ambition

  22-03-2018 12:01
  The likes of Coca-Cola, Sainsbury's and Tesco have all given their backing to a new Courtauld 2025 water ambition, amid a flurry of corporate activity around water efficiency on World Water Day (22 March).
  
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• Counting crows: the British birdmen bent on tackling property developers

  22-03-2018 11:50 via theguardian.com
  Oxfordshire twitchers do their own ecological surveys over concerns of collapsing bird populationsWhen developers came calling in Oxfordshire with plans to build homes, the locals found the most useful weapons to fight the proposal were not picket lines and bullhorns, but binoculars and cameras.“I’ve photographed birds for a long time in this area,” says Roger Smith, 71, a retired garden photographer and avid birdwatcher. Surveyors claimed there were just five species of bird a
  
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• Curiosity rover: 2,000 days on Mars

  22-03-2018 10:07 via bbc.co.uk
  The Nasa robot this week celebrates 2,000 martian days investigating the surface of the Red Planet.
  
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• 2,000 days on Mars

  22-03-2018 10:07 via bbc.co.uk
  The Nasa robot this week celebrates 2,000 martian days investigating the surface of the Red Planet.
  
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• Anger over Sheffield's plan to fell healthy trees

  22-03-2018 09:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Sheffield City Council's plan to fell thousands of healthy trees prompts angry protests.
  
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• ‘Cows carry flesh, but they carry personality too’: the hard lessons of farming

  22-03-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  They may be crucial products in a vast industry – but abandoning our relationship with the cattle we keep would mean throwing away something valuable. By John ConnellI’ve got my arms in her passage and I’m trying to find the new calf’s feet. As a farmer’s son, I’ve birthed calves aplenty, but always as the helper, holding a cow’s tail up or pulling the calf out at the last moment. My father has been in charge of the calving for 25 years, and when he wasn
  
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• Country diary: concrete threat to badger lifted for now

  22-03-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Tempsford, Bedfordshire: To us the entrance hole to the sett it is unfathomably small, for in our imaginations we big up the badger into a creature with the dimensions of a stripy bearOn a disused airfield where planes once lifted off on secret night missions to occupied Europe, animals roam the runways under cover of darkness. At one corner, badgers have mined a thicket of thorns with pickaxe claws and shovels for feet. Their sett is lodged among the bushes, its tunnels and chambers shored up a
  
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• Greens signal they may not back Labor in blocking Coalition's marine park plans

  22-03-2018 03:26 via theguardian.com
  Plans ‘woefully inadequate’, party says – but it fears replacing some protections with none at allThe Greens have signalled that they might not back a move by Labor to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government, calling for time to consider their position.
  The Greens’ healthy oceans spokesman, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, told Guardian Australia on Thursday that if the new government plans were disallowed, “then we mov
  
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• Climate science on trial as high-profile US case takes on fossil fuel industry

  22-03-2018 00:18 via theguardian.com
  Courtroom showdown in San Francisco pitted liberal cities against oil corporations, and saw judge host unusual climate ‘tutorial’ The science of climate change was on trial Wednesday when leading experts testified about the threats of global warming in a US court while a fossil fuel industry lawyer fighting a high-profile lawsuit sought to deflect blame for rising sea levels.
  The hearing was part of a courtroom showdown between liberal California cities and powerful oil corporations,
  
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