Environment news

• Weatherwatch: Underwater robots feed data to meteorologists

  23-04-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  While recording sounds from whales and other marine life in remote areas, these machines collect information that can improve forecastingIs it a bird? Is it a fish? No, it’s a robot. Scientists are deploying silent gliding robots to swoosh beneath the ocean waves, recording the singing of whales, clicks of dolphins, pitter-pattering of raindrops, humming of ship motors and crashing of waves during a storm. These new torpedo-shaped robots are remotely controlled by pilots, using satellite t
  
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• 'Wake-up call': microplastics found in Great Australian Bight sediment

  23-04-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Scientists say governments and corporations need to ‘legislate and incentivise’ to tackle ocean plastics• Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningPlastic has been found in ocean-floor sediments 2km below the surface in one of Australia’s most precious and isolated marine environments.
  CSIRO scientists discovered the microplastic pieces while analysing samples taken hundreds of kilometres offshore at the bottom of the Great Austral
  
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• Rotten egg gas around planet Uranus

  23-04-2018 19:05 via bbc.co.uk
  The planet Uranus has clouds made up of hydrogen sulphide, the gas that gives rotten eggs their unpleasant smell.
  
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• SC Johnson tweaks brand purpose as emissions tumble

  23-04-2018 18:13
  SC Johnson, ubiquitously known as "a family company", has updated its identity to place sustainability at the heart of business strategy, as outlined in the company's latest sustainability report which revealed that emissions have been halved over an 18-year period.
  
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• Graphene 'a game-changer' in making building with concrete greener

  23-04-2018 17:25 via theguardian.com
  Form of carbon incorporated into concrete created stronger, more water-resistant composite material that could reduce emissionsThe novel “supermaterial” graphene could hold the key to making one of the oldest building materials greener, new scientific research suggests.Graphene has been incorporated into traditional concrete production by scientists at the University of Exeter, developing a composite material which is more than twice as strong and four times more water-resistant than
  
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• Heathrow Airport champions coffee cup recycling in 2018 sustainability update

  23-04-2018 16:53
  EXCLUSIVE: Heathrow will recycle all disposable coffee cups that are sold and discarded onsite by the end of the year, the Airport's chief executive John Holland-Kaye announced during an edie webinar earlier today (23 April).
  
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• Xerox to offset customer paper footprints through reforestation platform

  23-04-2018 14:55
  Printing services company Xerox is offering a "you print one, we'll plant one" offer to consumers, to ensure that individual paper usage is covered by planting new trees across numerous reforestation projects.
  
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• AB Sugar targets water, carbon and plastics under new sustainability commitment

  23-04-2018 13:39
  Global sugar company AB Sugar has launched its first ever group-wide sustainability report, outlining bold new commitments to cut carbon emissions and water use by 30% and ensure all plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or bio-degradable by 2030.
  
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• UK's copper infrastructure puts technology expansion at odds with climate goals

  23-04-2018 13:34
  The exponential growth of smart, connected systems in the UK could restrict national efforts to lower emissions, due to a reliance on a copper-based digital infrastructure that has reached its "physical and technological limits", a new Carbon Smart report has found.
  
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• Whitbread sets science-based target to halve emissions intensity

  23-04-2018 12:26
  The UK's largest hospitality company Whitbread, has pledged to halve emissions in the next seven years as part of an "industry-leading" science-based target.
  
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• Pruitt promised polluters EPA will value their profits over American lives | Dana Nuccitelli

  23-04-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Pruitt is one of TIME’s 100 most influential people for his efforts to maximize polluters’ profitsTIME magazine announced last week that Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is among their 100 most influential people of 2018. George W. Bush’s former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman delivered the scathing explanation:If his actions continue in the same direction, during Pruitt’s term at the EPA the environment will be threatened instead of protected, and hu
  
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• World’s newest great ape threatened by Chinese dam

  23-04-2018 09:13 via theguardian.com
  The discovery of a new great ape species – the Tapanuli orangutan – has not stopped a Chinese state-run hydropower company from clearing forest for a planned dam. Conservationists fear this will be the beginning of the end for a species only known for six months.Last November scientists made a jaw-dropping announcement: they’d discovered a new great ape hiding in plain sight, only the eighth inhabiting our planet.The Tapanuli orangutan survives in northern Sumatra and it is alr
  
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• Environment prize goes to Flint water activist

  23-04-2018 08:57 via bbc.co.uk
  An activist who helped expose a water crisis in a US town has been awarded a prestigious environment prize.
  
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• Climate change: Michael Bloomberg pledges $4.5m for Paris deal

  23-04-2018 08:27 via bbc.co.uk
  New York City's ex-mayor pledges $4.5m to help cover the lapsed US contribution to the Paris accord.
  
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• Could sprinkling sand save the Arctic's shrinking sea ice?

  23-04-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Arctic Dispatches, part 3: A pilot project at a lake in northern Alaska is one of a number aiming to slow climate change with geoengineering – but some worry about unintended consequencesAs a test location for a project that aims to ensure the livability of Earth, a frozen lake near the northern tip of Alaska could seem rather inauspicious.While the North Meadow Lake near Utqiaġvik, formerly known as Barrow, may be relatively nondescript, it will be the staging ground this month for a
  
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• Morrison denies Northern Territory's extra $260m is for lifting fracking ban

  23-04-2018 07:48 via theguardian.com
  Treasurer says reason for funds top-up is fall in GST share, not hydraulic fracturing decision • Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon The federal government has given the Northern Territory an extra $260m to compensate for its low GST share, a decision both governments have denied is linked to the territory’s decision to lift a moratorium on fracking.At a press conference on Monday the treasurer, Scott Morrison, said the Northern Territory would receive th
  
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• 'Exploding ant' species found in South East Asia

  23-04-2018 07:08 via bbc.co.uk
  The newly discovered canopy-dwelling ants are nicknamed after their bizarre defensive behaviour.
  
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• Waging war against the brown rat - Country diary, 24 April 1918

  23-04-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  24 April 1918 Rat-catching has quite a literature of its own which should convince anyone of the possibility of reducing this great waster in a very short timeThe weather has continued favourable for both farm and garden work, and considerable progress has been made by the farmer and the allotment-holder. I don’t think we need yet despair (should favourable weather help us) of getting the great crop of potatoes that we have been called upon by the authorities to try for.Related: Man v rat:
  
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• Cambridge University urged again to end fossil fuel investments

  23-04-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Hundreds of academics, authors and scientists sign open letter as divisive issues comes to headHundreds of academics, scientists and authors have signed an open letter calling on Cambridge University to stop investing in fossil fuel companies, marking an escalation in an increasing bitter divestment campaign at the institution.The move, by signatories including Sir David King, until recently the UK’s permanent special representative for climate change, Thomas Blundell, the former president
  
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• Country diary: perplexed by a sign of the tides

  23-04-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Afon Mawddach, Gwynedd: As I pondered my options, pools of water formed in the carpet of vegetation around my bootsPassengers for Morfa Mawddach station, to use the formal language of the announcement, “should inform the conductor that they wish to alight”. Your reward, if you do so, is a single narrow platform overlooking the salt marsh on the southern side of the Mawddach estuary. The station was once an important railway junction and, almost hidden by the undergrowth, an abandoned
  
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• How a vampire squid inspired a Goldman prize-winning marine life champion

  23-04-2018 06:01 via theguardian.com
  European winner of the Goldman environment prize switched from journalism to activism to tackle the destructive practice of deep-sea bottom trawlingUnprecedented win for women in top global environment awardsIt was a vampire squid that inspired the European winner of this year’s Goldman environmental prize to successfully challenge the devastatingly unsustainable practice of bottom-trawling.More than a decade before Blue Planet, Claire Nouvian was researching this rare creature – a l
  
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• Goldman prize awarded to South African women who stopped an international nuclear deal

  23-04-2018 06:01 via theguardian.com
  Winners of the world’s leading environmental award faced down Vladimir Putin and the country’s recently deposed leader, Jacob Zuma, to overturn a multibillion-dollar nuclear dealUnprecedented win for women in top global environment awardsTwo grassroots women activists – one black, one white – stand together against two of the world’s most powerful men – one black, one white – over a secret, undemocratic, multibillion dollar nuclear deal.If this was the p
  
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• Goldman environmental prize: top awards dominated by women for first time

  23-04-2018 06:01 via theguardian.com
  Winners are all grassroots activists who have taken on powerful vested interests2018 Goldman environmental prize – the winners in picturesThe world’s foremost environmental prize has announced more female winners than ever before.
  The struggle for a healthy planet may sometimes feel like a series of defeats, but this year’s Goldman environmental prize celebrates six remarkable success stories, five of them driven by women.Continue reading...
  
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• 2018 Goldman environmental prize - the winners in pictures

  23-04-2018 06:01 via theguardian.com
  From an anti-nuclear court ruling in South Africa to a campaign that nudged the Vietnamese government from coal to renewable energy, the winners of the world’s leading environmental prize are all grassroots activists who have taken on powerful vested interestsContinue reading...
  
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• TODAY AT 1PM: Live webinar to discuss Heathrow's sustainability leadership

  23-04-2018 02:20
  With the 'Heathrow 2.0' sustainability update landing today (22 April), edie is hosting a live, interactive webinar featuring the Airport's chief executive John Holland-Kaye to discuss how the business is progressing on its mission to lead the industry on sustainable growth.
  
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• On-demand webinar: Inside Heathrow's 2.0 sustainability strategy

  23-04-2018 02:20
  With the 'Heathrow 2.0' sustainability update landing on Monday (22 April), edie hosted a live, interactive webinar featuring the Airport's chief executive John Holland-Kaye to discuss how the business has progressed on its mission to lead the industry on sustainable growth.
  
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• Why I live in a plastic bottle castle

  23-04-2018 01:52 via bbc.co.uk
  The man building a four-storey castle out of recycled plastic bottles.
  
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• 'Welcome to my plastic bottle castle'

  23-04-2018 01:52 via bbc.co.uk
  Meet "Plastic King" Robert Bezeau and his four-storey castle made out of recycled bottles in Panama.
  
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• Hemsby: Clifftop home destroyed erosion spanning 40 years

  23-04-2018 01:15 via bbc.co.uk
  Erosion of the cliff at Hemsby, Norfolk, has left 18 homes uninhabitable over the past five years.
  
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• Climate change: Michael Bloomberg offers $4.5m for Paris deal

  23-04-2018 01:15 via bbc.co.uk
  The former New York Mayor offers $4.5m to cover the lapsed US contribution to the Paris climate deal.
  
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• One in eight birds is threatened with extinction, global study finds

  23-04-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Report on the state of the world’s birds reveals a biodiversity crisis driven by intensive farming, with once-common species such as puffins and snowy owls now at riskOne in eight bird species is threatened with global extinction, and once widespread creatures such as the puffin, snowy owl and turtle dove are plummeting towards oblivion, according to the definitive study of global bird populations.The State of the World’s Birds, a five-year compendium of population data from the best
  
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• One in eight bird species is threatened with extinction, global study finds

  23-04-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Report on the state of the world’s birds reveals a biodiversity crisis driven by intensive farming, with once-common species such as puffins and snowy owls now at riskOne in eight bird species is threatened with global extinction, and once widespread creatures such as the puffin, snowy owl and turtle dove are plummeting towards oblivion, according to the definitive study of global bird populations.The State of the World’s Birds, a five-year compendium of population data from the best
  
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