Environment news

• Last chance to study and name Australia’s vanishing species, scientists warn MPs

  26-04-2018 23:51 via theguardian.com
  Australian Academy of Science launches 10-year plan to document hundreds of thousands of unknown species With an estimated 70% of Australian organisms still undocumented and funding for species discovery declining, the national science academy will head to parliament on Friday to argue that a rapid reversal is needed to avoid extinctions and reveal unimagined health and biosecurity solutions.The Australian Academy of Science and its New Zealand counterpart, the Royal Society Te Apārangi, ar
  
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• Pollutionwatch: spring is often the worst time in UK for air pollution

  26-04-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Ammonia from farms mixes with factory emissions and traffic exhaust to create high levels of air pollutionRunners in this year’s London Marathon escaped breathing badly polluted air as westerly winds cleared springtime smog just before the race start. Images of spring include blossom and fresh green growth, but it is often our most polluted time of year, and air pollution frequently reaches the top level on the UK government’s 10-point scale. In spring 2014 Paris instigated odd/even
  
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• 'Bare minimum' rehabilitation plan for mine – video

  26-04-2018 22:17 via theguardian.com
  Aerial footage supplied by the Lock the Gate Alliance shows the site of the former Ebenezer coalmine near Ipswich – which will remain a cratered landscape after the Queensland government accepted a rehabilitation plan from the site's current owner Continue reading...
  
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• Space agencies aim to deliver rocks from Mars to Earth

  26-04-2018 21:45 via bbc.co.uk
  Nasa and Esa sign a letter of intent that could lead to the first "round trip" to the Red Planet.
  
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• 'If I were the president, I'd get rid of you': Scott Pruitt lacerated at ethics hearing

  26-04-2018 20:53 via theguardian.com
  EPA administrator blames media and his job’s learning curve as lawmakers grill him over lavish spending and ethical controversies
  Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has blamed the media and the “learning process” of his job for the flurry of ethical controversies that have engulfed his tenure, during a lacerating congressional hearing.Pruitt said opponents of Donald Trump, and the media, had sought to “derail the president’s agen
  
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• A readymade garbage dump: Queensland allows 'bare minimum' mine rehab

  26-04-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Site of former Ebenezer coalmine near Ipswich will remain a cratered landscape after authorities apparently lose key environmental documents• Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningThe Queensland government accepted a “bare minimum” rehabilitation plan for a decommissioned coalmine near Ipswich after apparently losing key documents relating to the site’s environmental conditions.The site of the former Ebenezer mine will remain scarred by ma
  
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• Renewables could help UK shipping ports reduce 'neglected' pollution source, says report

  26-04-2018 18:49
  A switch to 100% renewable electricity for ships berthing at UK ports could reduce emissions, improve local air quality and save the UK up to £483m in health-related costs, according to a new report.
  
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• World's largest wind turbine to be trialled in the UK

  26-04-2018 14:27
  The world's largest wind turbine is to be trialled in the UK after GE Renewable Energy signed a five-year research and development deal with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult.
  
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• UK businesses make world-first pact to slash plastic packaging

  26-04-2018 12:19
  Major firms including Nestlé, Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Unilever have today (26 April) made joint commitments to make unnecessary single-use plastic packaging "a thing of the past".
  
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• Trump plan to tackle lead in drinking water criticized as 'empty exercise'

  26-04-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Sources within EPA tell Guardian that proposals are threadbare and muddled – ‘they’re are just making it up as they go along’Donald Trump has overseen an onslaught against environmental regulations while insisting, in the wake of the Flint lead crisis, that he would ensure “crystal-clean water” for Americans.The federal government says it is currently drawing up a new plan to tackle lead contamination, which the Environmental Protection Agency says will be unv
  
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• The missing maths: the human cost of fossil fuels | Ploy Achakulwisut

  26-04-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  We should account for the costs of disease and death from fossil fuel pollution in climate change policiesWhile the climate policy world is littered with numbers, three of them have dominated recent discourse: 2, 1000, and 66.At the 2015 U.N. climate summit in Paris, world leaders agreed to limit global warming below 2°C to avoid catastrophic impacts of human-caused climate change. The science consequently dictates that, for a 50% chance of staying below 2°C, around 1,000 billion tonnes
  
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• Democratic senators scrutinize Koch brothers' 'infiltration' of Trump team

  26-04-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Senators say Koch-linked figures are driving environmental policy, as résumés obtained by the Guardian and Documented show ties between staffers and networkDemocratic senators are demanding information about what they call the Koch brothers’ “infiltration” of the Trump administration, charging that Koch-linked personnel have secured key federal jobs and are determining US environmental and public health policy.The senators – including Sheldon Whitehouse, Edw
  
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• Whitley awards for nature conservation 2018 winners - in pictures

  26-04-2018 11:18 via theguardian.com
  Six conservationists have been recognised for their work with local communities to protect threatened wildlife and habitat around the world. The prestigious awards, known as the ‘green Oscars’, are made annually by the Whitley Fund for Nature, and provide winners with funding to scale up their projects Continue reading...
  
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• 'Guns, germs and trees' determine gorilla's fate

  26-04-2018 08:37 via bbc.co.uk
  The largest ever survey of western lowland gorillas shows most are living in unprotected areas.
  
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• Avicii’s music inspired snobbishness – yet he was the sound of collective euphoria | Elle Hunt

  26-04-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  With culture ever more atomised, the Swedish DJ created songs that brought a generation together. Now his shy fans are sharing their Avicii moments
  I did not know Tim Bergling, the 28-year-old Swede who died on 20 April. But I knew Avicii well. His bouncy, blatant electronic dance music – how you imagine strobe lights might sound – was the soundtrack to my first few years at university. In 2011, whether you were drinking cheap wine out of a mug in someone’s room, or amid a heav
  
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• UK retailers 'will not suffer financial losses' from bottle deposit scheme

  26-04-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Analysis of a similar system in Norway shows no one will be out of pocket as long as bottles and cans are returnedRetailers will not suffer financial losses from the introduction of a plastic bottle deposit return scheme (DRS) in the UK, according to an analysis of a similar system in Norway.The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has announced plans to launch a deposit system for bottles and cans in the UK, and MPs are due to debate the subject in parliament today. Continue reading...
  
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• Country diary: a predatory fish out of water

  26-04-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Sandy, Bedfordshire: There was something terrible about this pike, so strong and adept in open air, breaking loose from its watery domain to display a row of jagged teeth The inflatable banana caught my eye again, drawing my attention from a stretch of riverside towpath that had been mined and undermined by rabbits, tunnelled by moles and pummelled into unevenness by the hooves of the Travellers’ horses that were long before left loose to run here.It was on that same walk the day before th
  
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• 'We're doomed': Mayer Hillman on the climate reality no one else will dare mention

  26-04-2018 06:00 via theguardian.com
  The 86-year-old social scientist says accepting the impending end of most life on Earth might be the very thing needed to help us prolong it“We’re doomed,” says Mayer Hillman with such a beaming smile that it takes a moment for the words to sink in. “The outcome is death, and it’s the end of most life on the planet because we’re so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. There are no means of reversing the process which is melting the polar ice caps. And ver
  
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• Frydenberg refuses to repent as Alan Jones tries to exorcise energy blasphemy | Katharine Murphy

  26-04-2018 05:59 via theguardian.com
  The Sydney shock jock accused the energy minister of selling his soul. But then Frydenberg turned the tablesA couple of weeks ago, Alan Jones exposed what will hitherto be known as the furtive front lawn declaration. According to Jones, Josh Frydenberg had confessed to him on the front lawn of his Melbourne home that “the global warming stuff was rubbish”.
  By his own account, the Sydney shock jock shared this insight because he’d been irritated by the federal energy minister&rs
  
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• World's longest penguin dive, of more than half an hour, is recorded

  26-04-2018 04:37 via theguardian.com
  Record-breaking dive in Antarctic waters emerges after scientists accidentally tagged wrong emperor penguinsScientists in Antarctica have recorded the world’s longest penguin dive, an astounding 32.2 minutes under the water; a full five minutes longer than the previous record.Emperor penguins, which live only in Antartica, are the tallest and heaviest penguins in the world, and have the best diving ability. They can dive as much as 500 metres down in some of the world’s harshest and
  
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• Seventh EU Sentinel goes into orbit

  26-04-2018 02:56 via bbc.co.uk
  Europe's latest Earth observation satellite will focus on the behaviour and health of oceans.
  
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• Adani builds coal-fired power plant in India to send energy to Bangladesh

  26-04-2018 02:08 via theguardian.com
  But is it a genuine energy solution – or just a prop for the Carmichael mine? • Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonGodda, in the Indian state of Jharkhand, is surrounded by the country’s most productive coalmines. It will soon also be home to the Adani group’s latest coal-fired power station, a plant built for the sole purpose of sending energy across the border to Bangladesh.Adani has framed its planned 1,600-megawatt Godda power plant as a
  
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• Alien landscapes in the Australian outback – in pictures

  26-04-2018 01:39 via theguardian.com
  The Margaret river region’s Open Art Studios Event runs for 16 days and showcases a huge range artworks. One of the artists featured in the event is photographer Martine Perret, who explored Western Australia’s Goldfields-Esperance, Gascoyne, Mid West and Kimberley regions for her second book, Beyond Continue reading...
  
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• The robot helping to deliver water in rural India

  26-04-2018 01:05 via bbc.co.uk
  The customised robot is part of a study looking at how technology can help those in rural areas.
  
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• Companies sign up to pledge to cut plastic pollution

  26-04-2018 01:02 via bbc.co.uk
  More than 40 firms including Coca-Cola have promised to reduce harmful packaging.
  
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• UK supermarkets launch voluntary pledge to cut plastic packaging

  26-04-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Critics say retailers can pick and choose whether to sign up to Plastics Pact, a series of pledges that have no enforcement mechanismUK supermarkets and food companies launched a new voluntary pledge to cut plastic packaging on Thursday as ministers consider forcing them to pay more towards collecting and recycling the waste they produce.In a first response to a growing public backlash against the huge volumes of plastic rubbish, most of the UK’s largest supermarkets signed up to support t
  
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• How palm oil ban has made the EU a dirty word in Malaysia

  26-04-2018 00:12 via theguardian.com
  Angry farmers despair at what will happen to their livelihoods when the Brussels biofuels ban takes effect in 2020In the small farming settlement of Palong in rural Malaysia, the EU is a dirty word. A few months ago, these men – mostly in their sixties, their skin brown and weathered from years working the land – had never even heard of the European parliament: but now their livelihoods are at risk because of it.The crop they harvest is palm oil, one of Malaysia’s biggest expor
  
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• Macron: 'One day the US will come back to the Paris agreement' – video

  26-04-2018 00:04 via theguardian.com
  Emmanuel Macron made an impassioned speech in Washington on Wednesday advocating many of the things, including the Paris climate change accord, that Donald Trump has spent much of his presidency trying to destroy.  Continue reading...
  
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