Environment news

• Weatherwatch: arid American west expands eastwards

  30-04-2018 22:30
  Water supplies in western US will become more precarious amid warming climateLos Angeles should not exist. The explorer John Wesley Powell warned the US Congress 140 years ago that the American west was a harsh arid land and settlements should be limited to conserve scarce water supplies. The politicians rejected his advice and launched a massive programme of dam and canal construction for irrigation and settlements.
  In a gruelling expedition across North America, Powell had seen a dramatic tran
  
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• Melbourne's water supply at risk due to 'collapse' of forests caused by logging

  30-04-2018 21:00
  Tree-felling helped trigger ‘hidden collapse’ of mountain ash forests, ecologists say• Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningMelbourne’s water supply is at risk because decades of logging and forest loss from large bushfires has triggered the imminent collapse of the mountain ash forests in Victoria’s central highlands, ecologists have said.The Victorian government was warned of the likelihood of ecosystem collapse by Australian Nati
  
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• Coalition's energy guarantee: modelling assumes Liddell power plant retired by 2023

  30-04-2018 20:00
  Turnbull government has applied public pressure on AGL Energy to extend plant’s operating lifeTechnical work undertaken for the Turnbull government’s national energy guarantee assumes the ageing Liddell power plant will be out of the system by 2023 – a development that will help drive the emissions reduction requirements of the Coalition’s new energy policy.
  While the Turnbull government has applied extraordinary public pressure to AGL Energy to extend the operating life
  
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• Compass turns to behaviour change to reduce food waste

  30-04-2018 19:06
  Contract caterer Compass UK & Ireland has teamed up with food management firm Winnow and social charity Hubbub for a new behaviour change campaign to find out what makes diners at corporate restaurants waste less food.
  
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• Ministers' £400m plan for electric car charging infrastructure delayed

  30-04-2018 18:03
  Plan for fund combining taxpayers’ cash and private investment significantly behind schedule, it has emergedA £400m government plan to build electric car charging points looks likely to be significantly delayed, in a blow to car manufacturers and efforts to tackle air pollution in UK cities.The Treasury pledged last year to support the switch to zero-emission vehicles with a £400m fund for charging infrastructure. Half of the money was to come from the taxpayer, with the rest m
  
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• Blockchain platform to assist £19m virtual energy marketplace in Cornwall

  30-04-2018 17:51
  Energy solutions firm Centrica has launched new trials to examine how blockchain technology can assist with multi-party peer-to-peer energy trading for 200 businesses and residential participants in Cornwall.
  
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• New beetle species named after Leonardo DiCaprio

  30-04-2018 17:00
  Water beetle species found in Malaysia was named after the Titanic star for his environmental activismA new species of water beetle found clinging to a sandstone rock in a fast-flowing stream that leads to a waterfall in Malaysian Borneo has been named after the actor Leonardo DiCaprio.The tiny black insect, which has a partially retractable head and slightly protruding eyes, was named after the star of Titanic and The Revenant for his environmental activism. Continue reading...
  
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• Share your experiences of tree cutting by railway lines near you

  30-04-2018 16:04
  We want to hear from those who have seen tree felling along tracks and what they think its affect may be on the environment and wildlife
  One witness called tree cutting along a track near him as “total mass destruction” as it was revealed that Network Rail launched a secretive felling operation putting millions of trees at risk.Ray Walton, who saw hundreds of trees being chopped down along the length of track between Christchurch and Bournemouth said: “These trees were mature 3
  
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• Does Human Planet have to be as accurate as the news?

  30-04-2018 13:35
  The nature show has been pulled by the broadcaster after questions were raised over the veracity of some scenes. But some argue that even if film-makers cheated, it is still far from fake newsOn Friday morning, at 9.30am, I bought and watched the fourth episode of the 2011 BBC natural history series Human Planet on Amazon Prime. Just over an hour later, the show was no longer for sale.This digital extinction seemed to be part of the BBC’s attempt to remove, for the moment, any trace in any
  
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• Where do all the road collisions with deer occur? | Notes and queries

  30-04-2018 12:15
  The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific conceptsMore than 42,000 deer are killed in collisions on the UK’s roads every year, according to the AA. But where? I’ve never seen a deer near a road.Simon Harrison Continue reading...
  
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• Waitrose donates £1m to tackle marine plastic pollution

  30-04-2018 12:11
  Waitrose has announced the donation of £1m to support the fight against plastic pollution, using money raised from its plastic carrier bag levy funds.
  
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• European Union agrees to ban on bee-harming insecticides

  30-04-2018 12:11
  The European Union has announced a ban on three widely-used insecticides due to the threat that they pose to bees, although some green groups are calling for further bans on other chemicals.
  
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• UK-US initiative to study mighty Thwaites Glacier

  30-04-2018 12:01 via bbc.co.uk
  British and American scientists will assess the stability of one of Antarctica's biggest ice streams.
  
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• Thwaites Glacier: Biggest ever Antarctic field campaign

  30-04-2018 12:01 via bbc.co.uk
  British and American scientists will assess the stability of one of Antarctica's biggest ice streams.
  
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• Republicans have so corrupted EPA, Americans can only save it in the voting booth | Dana Nuccitelli

  30-04-2018 12:00
  The Republican Party values polluter wealth over public healthLike Donald Trump and the rest of his administration, Scott Pruitt has been caught up in so many scandals that it becomes impossible to focus on any single act of corruption. It’s difficult to focus on the damage Pruitt is doing to the environment and public health when seemingly every day there’s a new scandal related to his illegal $43,000 phone booth, or use of Safe Water Drinking Act funds to give two staffers a total
  
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• Boaty McBoatface leads £20m mission to melting Antarctic glacier

  30-04-2018 12:00
  British and US scientists are to examine the risk of the Thwaites glacier collapsing, which is already responsible for a 4% sea-level rise
  The precarious state of a vast, remote Antarctic glacier will provide an inaugural mission for the British vessel once dubbed Boaty McBoatface, as scientists from the UK and US set up a new £20m research operation. Continue reading...
  
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• £20m study to investigate collapse risk of major Antarctic glacier

  30-04-2018 12:00
  British and US scientists are to examine the melting Thwaites glacier responsible for 4% rise in sea levels
  British and US scientists are to collaborate on a £20m project to examine the Thwaites glacier in west Antarctica, a major glacier that drains an area about the size of the UK. Continue reading...
  
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• The new food: meet the startups racing to reinvent the meal

  30-04-2018 09:00
  Lab-grown meat and food-tech companies in the US are showing that applying science to what we eat can save the world and make money
  “If you make food that tastes really good, you win,” says Josh Tetrick, with a smile. And winning is crucial, he says, with his company Just in the vanguard of a new sector with an ambitious mission: to use cutting-edge technologies to create food that will take down the meat and dairy industries.The scope is huge: growing meat in labs, producing creamy
  
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• How a bunch of geeks scared the meat industry

  30-04-2018 09:00
  Lab grown meat and food tech startups in the US are showing that applying science to what we eat can save the world and make money.“If you make food that tastes really good, you win,” says Josh Tetrick, with a smile. And winning is crucial, he says, with his company Just in the vanguard of a new sector with an ambitious mission: to use cutting-edge technologies to create food that will take down the meat and dairy industries.The scope is huge: growing meat in labs, producing creamy s
  
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• David Attenborough backs 'last chance' push to study Australian biodiversity – video

  30-04-2018 08:24
  The Australian Academy of Science and its New Zealand counterpart, the Royal Society Te Apārangi, are launching a 10-year plan to study and name unknown species, warning that a sound understanding of biodiversity is critical in the face of a global extinction crisis. Broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has gotten behind the study, saying, 'We cannot understand the natural world without the taxonomic system.'  He adds, 'I depend on the work of these scientists' Continue re
  
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• Hedgehog sightings fall for third consecutive year, survey reveals

  30-04-2018 08:00
  Annual BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine study reports six in 10 people have not seen a hedgehog in their garden this yearSightings of hedgehogs in gardens have fallen again, with almost six in 10 people saying they have not seen one at all this year, a survey has found.Related: Apocalypse hedgehog: the fight to save Britain's favourite mammalContinue reading...
  
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• World's oldest known spider dies at 43 after a quiet life underground

  30-04-2018 07:39
  Female trapdoor spider known as Number 16 was sedentary and stayed close to her burrow• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonThe world’s oldest known spider has died at the ripe old age of 43 after being monitored for years during a long-term population study in Australia, researchers say.The trapdoor matriarch comfortably outlived the previous record holder, a 28-year-old tarantula found in Mexico, according to a study published on Monday in the Pacific Co
  
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• Victorian town ordered to pay $90,000 after losing bottled water battle with farmer

  30-04-2018 06:48
  Stanley residents fail to stop farmer mining groundwater that is sold on as bottled springwater • Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonResidents from a tiny Victorian town have been ordered to pay $90,000 in legal costs after they launched a failed bid to prevent a farmer from extracting and selling groundwater as bottled springwater to a subsidiary of the Japanese beverage giant Asahi.The supreme court of Victoria made the costs ruling last week, four months aft
  
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• Country diary: I call to the boulderers 'Can you spot me?'

  30-04-2018 06:30
  Armathwaite, Eden Valley: Their fingertips white with climbing chalk, they are surmounting overhangs and traversing blank-looking wallsJohn Buchan’s hero Richard Hannay crosses my mind as I reach an impasse while walking along the banks of the Eden to Armathwaite crags. A flight of steps descends into Sandy Bay, created from fine-grained sand churned up from the riverbed each flood. Only, while Buchan’s 39 steps descend to sands between white chalk cliffs in Kent, Armathwaite’s
  
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• Alinta announces $250m bid for AGL's Liddell coal power station

  30-04-2018 05:22
  Hong Kong’s Alinta says it has made a nonbinding offer for the plant that is slated to close in 2022• Sign up to receive the top stories every morningThe Hong Kong-owned energy retailer Alinta Energy says it has made good on a much-telegraphed offer for AGL Energy’s ageing Liddell coal plant after achieving board sign-off at the weekend.AGL confirmed on Monday it had received a non-binding and “highly conditional” $250m cash offer from Alinta and its Hong Kong-based
  
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• Alinta announces official bid for AGL's Liddell coal power station

  30-04-2018 01:54
  Hong Kong’s Alinta says it has made a nonbinding offer, but AGL says it has not received the bid• Sign up to receive the top stories every morningThe Hong Kong owned energy retailer Alinta Energy says it has made good on a much-telegraphed offer for AGL Energy’s ageing Liddell coal plant after achieving board sign-off at the weekend.
  While the company has not disclosed the value of the offer, Alinta management has said publicly it would be in the order of $1bn. Continue reading.
  
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• Alinta launches official bid for AGL's Liddell coal power station

  30-04-2018 01:13
  Hong Kong’s Alinta makes nonbinding offer it has previously said would be about $1bn• Sign up to receive the top stories every morningThe Hong Kong owned energy retailer Alinta Energy has made good on a much-telegraphed offer for AGL Energy’s ageing Liddell coal plant after achieving board sign-off at the weekend.
  While the company has not disclosed the value of the offer, Alinta management has said publicly it would be in the order of $1bn. Continue reading...
  
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