Environment news

• Delay for Nasa's Tess planet-hunter

  16-04-2018 22:11 via bbc.co.uk
  The launch of the Tess mission to find new worlds beyond our Solar System is delayed by 48 hours.
  
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• Recycling hope for plastic-hungry enzyme

  16-04-2018 21:46 via bbc.co.uk
  Science created a 'wonder material' in plastic; now nature is helping to unmake it.
  
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• Scientists accidentally create mutant enzyme that eats plastic bottles

  16-04-2018 21:00
  The breakthrough, spurred by the discovery of plastic-eating bugs at a Japanese dump, could help solve the global plastic pollution crisisScientists have created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles – by accident. The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling for the first time the full recycling of bottles.The new research was spurred by the discovery in 2016 of the first bacterium that had naturally evolved to eat plastic, at a waste
  
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• Gorilla Calaya gives birth at Smithsonian National Zoo

  16-04-2018 20:49 via bbc.co.uk
  Calaya, the western lowland gorilla, gave birth at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC.
  
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• Who’s defending Canada’s national interest? First Nations facing down a pipeline | Martin Lukacs

  16-04-2018 20:37
  Justin Trudeau is bailing out a Texas oil billionaire. He should be bailing out Canada’s workers and the climate.Last Saturday, Indigenous leaders stood arm-in-arm in front of the gates of Kinder Morgan’s pipeline worksite in Burnaby, British Columbia.For weeks before, hundreds of non-native people – environmentalists, federal parliamentarians Elizabeth May and Kennedy Stewart, even an engineer formerly employed by the Texas oil corporation – had marched to the same place
  
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• Scott Pruitt's $43,000 'privacy booth' violated spending laws, watchdog finds

  16-04-2018 20:28
  Purchase of a soundproof booth for EPA chief violates federal law that prohibits spending more than $5,000 on office improvementsAn internal government watchdog says the Environmental Protection Agency violated federal spending laws when purchasing a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for administrator Scott Pruitt to make private phone calls in his office.The Government Accountability Office issued its findings on Monday in a letter to Senate Democrats who had requested a review of Pruitt’s
  
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• The plastic tsunami: pollution across Australia's coastlines – in pictures

  16-04-2018 20:00
  With Australia’s beaches and oceans covered in rubbish, Tangaroa Blue volunteers spend days trying to clean things up. While these images are not beautiful or professionally taken, they are the harsh reality of the world’s plastic pollution problem.• ‘Plastic is literally everywhere’: the epidemic attacking Australia’s oceans Continue reading...
  
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• Let the words speak for themselves | Brief letters

  16-04-2018 19:15
  Bubbles in beer | Female newsreaders | Yellow highlighter | Pesto as a staple food | First swallowsGive yeast to provide bubbles in beer (Letters, 13 April)? That means reduced alcohol content in the brew, a balance restored circa 1794 by the head brewer, Joseph Crabtree, of the Gordon & Hume Brewery in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, who discovered that adding additional fermentable sugars suppressed oxidation to gas and retained alcohol content (the Crabtree Effect). However, this increases
  
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• Nasa's Tess planet-hunter: What stars sound like

  16-04-2018 18:58 via bbc.co.uk
  UK astronomer Bill Chaplin demonstrates the noises that stars make and why this is useful to know.
  
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• Dutch island wants its rabbits to breed like …

  16-04-2018 15:41
  Biodiversity concerns prompt emergency plan to use ferrets to round up the few rabbits leftIt is not a pastime for which rabbits usually require much encouragement. But a mystery depletion in numbers on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog has led to an emergency effort to coax the local population into breeding … well, like rabbits.Ferrets are being deployed to chase the reluctant remaining animals out of their warrens and into the hands of conservationists, who are bringing them together
  
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• 'Lightweight PR and greenwash' – BP's low-carbon plan dismissed

  16-04-2018 15:20
  Environmentalists call strategy ‘20th century response to a 21st century problem’Environmental leaders have dismissed BP’s new low-carbon strategy as “greenwash” and a lightweight response to climate change and the energy market’s rapid switch to renewables.In a strategy published on Monday, BP said there would be no increase in its carbon footprint over the next seven years because it will cut emissions from its oil and gas rigs, and offset the rest. Continue
  
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• Nasa planet-hunter set for launch

  16-04-2018 14:53 via bbc.co.uk
  The Tess mission will survey nearly the entire sky and is expected to find thousands of new worlds.
  
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• Sky and National Geographic join forces in fight against marine plastic pollution

  16-04-2018 12:58
  Global broadcasters Sky and National Geographic have teamed up to drive a global media campaign to reduce plastic litter in the ocean.
  
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• The courts are deciding who's to blame for climate change | Dana Nuccitelli

  16-04-2018 12:00
  Oil companies? The government? The public? All of the above share the blame.
  There are numerous ongoing legal challenges in an effort to determine who’s responsible for climate change. Exxon is under investigation by state attorneys general, cities are suing oil companies over sea level rise costs, and Our Children’s Trust is suing the federal government for failing to protect their generation from climate change. At the heart of these legal challenges lies the question – who b
  
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• London startup performs UK's first blockchain energy trade

  16-04-2018 11:31
  A London-based firm has conducted the UK's first physical blockchain energy trade, which has enabled housing estate residents to benefit from renewable energy sources.
  
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• UN agrees to halve shipping emissions by 2050

  16-04-2018 11:07
  Over 170 countries reached agreement on Friday (13 April) to reduce CO2 emissions from shipping by "at least" 50% on 2008 levels by 2050, ending years of slow progress.
  
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• Two surfers attacked by sharks on Western Australia coast near Pro tournament

  16-04-2018 09:15
  Man in his 30s taken to Royal Perth hospital after being bitten on the leg while a 41-year-old surfer was treated at beach for minor injuriesTwo people have been bitten by sharks while surfing off the same stretch of Western Australia’s southwest coast on Monday.A 37-year-old man was bitten on the lower leg at Cobblestones beach in Gracetown, near the Margaret River Pro surfing tournament, just before 8am and managed to bodysurf back to shore. Continue reading...
  
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• Man attacked by shark near Margaret River Pro bodysurfed to shore

  16-04-2018 09:05
  Man in his 30s taken to Royal Perth hospital after being bitten on the leg off Gracetown in Western AustraliaA man who was bitten by a shark while surfing off Western Australia’s south coast managed to bodysurf back to shore before his friends used a board rope as a tourniquet to stem his bleeding.The 37-year-old man was bitten on the lower leg at Cobblestones beach in Gracetown, near the Margaret River Pro surfing tournament, just before 8am on Monday.Continue reading...
  
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• Hen harrier 'brood management' plan faces crowdfunded legal challenge

  16-04-2018 07:01
  Campaign against plan to remove chicks from their nests and rear them in captivity raises £25,000 in four daysA controversial plan to remove the chicks of endangered birds from their nests and rear them in captivity could be challenged in the high court after a crowdfunded campaign raised £25,000 in four days.Wildlife campaigner and author Mark Avery is leading an application for a judicial review of the hen harrier “brood management” plan, in which chicks will be raised
  
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• The ingenious cyclewear Victorian women invented to navigate social mores

  16-04-2018 07:00
  Patents by female inventors from the 1890s reveal the creative ways women made their body mobile through clothingMuch has been written about the bicycle’s role as a vehicle of women’s liberation. But far less is known about another critical technology women used to forge new mobile and public lives – cyclewear. I have been studying what Victorian women wore when they started cycling. Researching how early cyclists made their bodies mobile through clothing reveals much about the
  
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• Country diary: wheatears on both sides of their migratory journey

  16-04-2018 06:30
  Aigas, Invernessshire and Uganda: Wintering wheatears were abundant in Uganda, looking exactly the same as they do when they arrive in the HighlandsContinue reading...
  
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• Coalition considers letting power companies buy offsets to cut emissions

  16-04-2018 05:07
  Tony Abbott argues offsets are carbon trading but government says it could include them in energy guaranteeThe Turnbull government is hedging its bets on whether to allow energy companies to buy offsets to comply with their new 26% emissions reduction target.
  A new 12-page discussion paper obtained by Guardian Australia addressing the emissions reduction architecture of the national energy guarantee (Neg) suggests the government is yet to make a decision about whether domestic or international e
  
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• Shark attack closes Margaret River pro surfing event

  16-04-2018 04:21
  Man in his 30s taken to Royal Perth hospital after being bitten on the leg off Gracetown in Western AustraliaA man has been bitten by a shark off the coast of Western Australia, prompting authorities to close down the nearby Margaret River Pro international surfing event.The man, in his 30s, was flown to Royal Perth hospital with leg injuries, but was conscious, St John Ambulance said.Continue reading...
  
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• Welcome to Australia's plastic beach – video

  16-04-2018 02:59
  How much rubbish could you collect from a suburban beach in 30 minutes? You may find the answer confronting. Guardian Australia joins Paul Sharp and Silke Stuckenbrock from the Two Hands Project to see just how prevalent plastics are on Australia's beaches Continue reading...
  
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