Environment news

• The Guardian view on friendly bacteria: an ally against plastic | Editorial

  22-04-2018 19:20 via theguardian.com
  Thanks to a genetically engineered enzyme, a bug that eats plastic bottles developed a much bigger appetite for our rubbish. It is a hopeful signEvolution never sleeps. Before 1970 there can have been no significant bacteria that ate plastic, because there was not enough of that plastic in the world to sustain a population. But in 2016 a group of Japanese scientists discovered a new species, Ideonella sakaiensis, in the samples they were sifting from a bottle-recycling plant, that was able to at
  
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• Michael Bloomberg pledges $4.5m to cover US Paris climate commitment

  22-04-2018 19:09 via theguardian.com
  Former NYC mayor criticises Trump for pulling out of dealEPA chief Pruitt did meet lobbyist linked to condo, despite denialsThe former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he will write a $4.5m cheque to cover this year’s US commitment to the Paris climate agreement. Related: Macron begins Trump charm offensive with Fox News interviewContinue reading...
  
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• Killer whales seen in river Clyde

  22-04-2018 15:32 via theguardian.com
  Pod of orcas spotted between Dunoon and Gourock, thought to be hunting seals or porpoisesA pod of killer whales has been spotted in the river Clyde apparently hunting seals or porpoises.Images and videos have been posted on social media over the weekend of about half a dozen killer whales, or orcas, between Dunoon and Gourock.Continue reading...
  
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• EPA chief Scott Pruitt did meet lobbyist linked to condo lease, despite denials

  22-04-2018 14:24 via theguardian.com
  Pruitt and Steven Hart both denied any recent businessTwo men met at EPA HQ in July 2017 to discuss Chesapeake BayEnvironmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt met in his office last year with a veteran Washington lobbyist tied to the bargain-priced condo where Pruitt was living. Both Pruitt and lobbyist Steven Hart had previously denied Hart had conducted any recent business with EPA.Continue reading...
  
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• How to avoid clothes moths: live in the east Midlands

  22-04-2018 11:00 via theguardian.com
  Survey suggests pest problem is worst in south-east England, and in flats and pre-1950s housingGot a lovely collection of cashmere sweaters you don’t want devoured by moths? Then maybe you should move to a new-build house in the east Midlands. That, you see, is the type of dwelling and region least likely to be tormented by the pesky insects, according to a new study by English Heritage at least.English Heritage conservators have been monitoring the remorseless rise in moth numbers, blamed
  
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• Meet the anti-plastic warriors: the pioneers with bold solutions to waste

  22-04-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The environmental scourge of plastic has shot to the top of the political agenda. We talk to the creatives and campaigners behind five imaginative new venturesAmong retailers and manufacturers, they talk of “the Blue Planet effect”. The BBC series, screened late last year, was the moment that many of us realised the catastrophic impact our use of plastics was having on the world’s oceans. Scenes such as a hawksbill turtle snagged in a plastic sack, the albatrosses feeding their
  
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• 'Amazing but also concerning': weird wildlife ventures to northern Alaska

  22-04-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Arctic Dispatches, part 2: As the Arctic heats up, residents of Utqiaġvik are experiencing first contact with unusual species that are making their way polewardsLast July, Nagruk Harcharek was savouring a bucolic visit to a cabin that sits on the lip of the Chipp river, deep in the Alaskan Arctic, when something caught his eye. Shimmering on a rack where he hangs his caught whitefish to dry was, astonishingly, a dragonfly.“I’d been going to camp there for 30 years and I’d
  
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• Mission to untangle female right whale highlights species' precarious plight

  22-04-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Removing a thick fishing rope from a highly fertile whale’s jaw was a priority for scientists who fear the species may be in terminal declineA mission to disentangle a particularly important North Atlantic right whale from a thick rope wrapped around its jaw has proved a partial success, amid growing fears that the endangered species is approaching a terminal decline.The individual female whale, known as Kleenex, is considered one of the most productive North Atlantic right whales left in
  
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• Nasa engineer: Three facts about landing on Mars

  22-04-2018 01:29 via bbc.co.uk
  A Nasa flight analyst explains three things you need to know about going to Mars.
  
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• Mozambique prays for rain as water shortages hit country’s poor

  22-04-2018 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Taps in capital city of Maputo being turned off every other day as climate change exacerbates southern African droughtIn the township of Chamanculo, in Maputo, Mozambique, a network of household taps made the community water pump obsolete years ago, freeing residents from the daily burden of lugging massive jerrycans of water long distances.But a water crisis, partly caused by an ongoing drought affecting much of southern Africa, is already reversing progress in this coastal city. An emergency &
  
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• Frydenberg stalls on woodlands protection after pressure from states and farmers

  22-04-2018 00:15 via theguardian.com
  Decision on Tasmanian, NSW and Queensland woodlands’ on hold despite advice from expert committee• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Farmers’ associations, the Tasmanian deputy premier and a Tasmanian Liberal senator lobbied the environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, not to grant critically endangered status to woodlands eligible for protection under Australia’s national environment laws.In 2017 the independent threatened species
  
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