Environment news

• Weatherwatch: May 1935 saw unusually wintry conditions

  02-05-2018 22:30
  Widespread frost caused damage to fruit and vegetables as temperatures plungedIt has not been a great spring – so far, at least – but temperatures have been more or less normal: unlike those of May 1935. The month in which King George V celebrated his silver jubilee started well, with fine, sunny weather, and highs of 23C.Continue reading...
  
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• Plants 'talk to' each other through their roots

  02-05-2018 20:00
  Scientists studying corn seedlings believe that they send signals under the soil, advising each other of the proximity of other plantsPlants use their roots to “listen in” on their neighbours, according to research that adds to evidence that plants have their own unique forms of communication.The study found that plants in a crowded environment secrete chemicals into the soil that prompt their neighbours to grow more aggressively, presumably to avoid being left in the shade. Continue
  
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• Liberal activists target Tony Abbott's seat over climate change policy

  02-05-2018 20:00
  Sydneysiders urged to join party in former PM’s seat to ‘shift the politics’ and speak up for the environment • Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningTony Abbott’s political future could be under threat from a group of activists who have been organising environmentally conscious voters to join Liberal party branches on Sydney’s north shore – a move that could unseat the former prime minister.Billing themselves as “t
  
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• How birds got their beaks - new fossil evidence

  02-05-2018 19:11 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists piece together the skull of an ancient bird, which had a primitive beak lined with teeth.
  
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• Pakistani city breaks April record with day of 50C heat

  02-05-2018 18:31
  Citizens consider fleeing Nawabshah in fear of what summer might bringA Pakistani city has set a global record temperature for the month of April, with the mercury rising to more than 50C on Monday, prompting fears that people might leave to escape even higher temperatures when summer sets in.The southern city of Nawabshah recorded a high of 50.2C on Monday.Continue reading...
  
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• Barclays unveils dedicated Green Trade Loan

  02-05-2018 18:09
  Barclays has launched a new loans product to help businesses meet working capital needs related to green projects.
  
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• Everglades under threat as Florida's mangroves face death by rising sea level

  02-05-2018 16:52
  The ‘river of grass’ wilderness and coastal communities are in peril, with the buffer coastal ecosystems on a ‘death march’ inlandFlorida’s mangroves have been forced into a hasty retreat by sea level rise and now face being drowned, imperiling coastal communities and the prized Everglades wetlands, researchers have found. Continue reading...
  
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• Wimbledon announces ban on plastic straws for 2018 championship

  02-05-2018 16:47
  The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) has announced it will use recyclable paper straws for the 2018 Wimbledon tournament, in a bid to prevent more than 400,000 plastic straws going to landfill.
  
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• Recycle the Weetabix! What I learned from a month on the app that tackles food waste

  02-05-2018 14:47
  We waste £13bn worth of food each year in the UK, with 71% of that being wasted at home. At the same time, use of food banks has boomed. Is Olio the answer?I am walking with a woman named Kerry, whom I have just met, to her car. She is in her mid-30s and has a tinge of attitude, as if she came to London to fix it. When we reach her car, she opens the boot. Inside are hundreds of industrial-sized tubs of hummus, enough to power Brighton for a week.I met Kerry online, not via some kind of hu
  
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• Hospitality & leisure firms struggling to act on modern slavery, edie report finds

  02-05-2018 13:28
  EXCLUSIVE: Modern slavery is seen as a 'business-critical' sustainability challenge by just one-fifth of firms operating in the UK's hospitality and leisure sector, with businesses struggling to achieve fully-transparent supply chains, edie's latest sector insight report has found.
  
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• Prof Stephen Hawking's multiverse finale

  02-05-2018 13:15 via bbc.co.uk
  In his last paper, the Cambridge physicist tackles multiple universes and a cosmic paradox.
  
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• Women fighting forest fires say abuse is rife – but men often go unpunished

  02-05-2018 12:00
  Women in the US Forest Service love what they do. But they also describe a toxic male environment that tolerates, and even promotes, their harassersDenice Rice handles things for herself. A more than 20-year veteran of the US Forest Service’s wildfire operations, she’s spent weeks at a time working blazes deep in the wilderness. So she thought she could manage when, in 2009, her new second-in-line supervisor started giving her unwanted attention. “He immediately befriended me a
  
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• This is Mission Possible: How Heathrow is achieving a sustainable future for mobility

  02-05-2018 12:00
  This series of video interviews showcases the sustainability superheroes who are achieving 'Mission Possible' for their business. Here, Heathrow's sustainability and environment director Matthew Gorman explains how the Airport is working to achieve a sustainable future for mobility.
  
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• Air pollution inequality widens between rich and poor, linked to 7 million deaths annually

  02-05-2018 10:50
  Pollution inequality between the world's rich and poor is widening, according to the latest global data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) which shows that 7 million people - mostly in developing nations - die every year from airborne contaminants.
  
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• France and Australia can be heart of new Indo-Pacific axis, Macron says

  02-05-2018 10:04
  French president and Australia’s PM talk up rules-based order in region – and praise China’s rise • Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon France and Australia can be the heart of a new Indo-Pacific axis, promoting peace, stability and a rules-based order, Emmanuel Macron said in Sydney on Wednesday.But the French president was at pains to stress that France’s continued emphasis on its Pacific presence was not one antagonistic to China, say
  
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• Cities from the sea: the true cost of reclaimed land

  02-05-2018 08:30
  Asia is growing. Literally. From Malaysia to Dubai, luxury developments are rising on artificial islands and coastlines. Everybody wins – except the local sea life and the fishermen who depend on it“Before, there were many fish,” says fisherman Mohd-Ishak Bin Abdul Rahman as he pulls a dried up crab from his net. A few years ago he could just walk out into the surf and pick up crustaceans with his bare hands, he tells me. “Now, nothing.”He blames the palisade of new
  
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• Wet wipe pollution 'changing the shape of British riverbeds'

  02-05-2018 07:00
  More than 5,000 wet wipes found in an area next to the Thames the size of two football pitchesWet wipes are changing the shape of British riverbeds, campaigners said after finding more than 5,000 of them alongside the Thames in an area the size of two football pitches.Thames 21, a London environmental organisation that cleans up rivers and canals, retrieved 5,453 wet wipes during an operation last month in 116 sq m of the Thames embankment near Hammersmith. The haul was an increase of nearly a t
  
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• Honduran dam protesters face trial in ongoing crackdown against defenders

  02-05-2018 07:00
  The ‘Jilamito Five’ are the latest to be caught up in battles over land and natural resources, that have seen more than 130 defenders killed since 2009 The suspects pray together on a concrete podium opposite the courthouse where they face criminal charges. Their alleged misdemeanour: “land invasion” during a protest against the construction of a dam. A guilty verdict could bring a jail term of up to four years. If that seems harsh, then it’s because this is Hondura
  
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• EDF plan for tallest UK onshore wind turbines prompts outcry

  02-05-2018 07:00
  Isle of Lewis residents protest against new windfarm plan to raise turbine height to 200mEDF Energy has said its plans for two major windfarms on the Isle of Lewis may need to reach heights normally the preserve of turbines at sea, prompting an outcry from local opponents.The French company’s renewables unit said it may need to go higher for the project to be economically viable and win millions of pounds in government subsidies.Continue reading...
  
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• Climate 'culture war' will doom Australia to fail on emissions targets, Labor says

  02-05-2018 06:01
  Mark Butler says ‘we’re not going to get deep decarbonisation’ without end to toxic politicsAustralia will not achieve its emissions reductions targets until it ends the “culture war” on climate policy, Labor frontbencher Mark Butler has said.Speaking at the Carbon Market Institute emissions reduction conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, Butler said that Australia was a case study in how “toxic politics” could stymie efforts to decarbonise the economy.
  
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• Kangaroo attacks on tourists prompt warnings to stop feeding them junk food

  02-05-2018 05:46
  Wild animals lash out at visitors to NSW hospital site after being fed inappropriate food such as carrots, chips and even McDonald’s • Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonA state MP has called for a coordinated government response to a spate of junk food-crazed kangaroo attacks on tourists on the New South Wales central coast.
  The attacks have occurred while tourists attempt to feed the native animals inappropriate food such as carrots and corn chips, and
  
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• America's huge success in cutting smog at risk of being eroded, experts warn

  02-05-2018 01:04
  Scientists and public health experts say Trump administration’s bid to undo pollution rules are ‘extremely counterintuitive and worrying’America’s leading cities have some of the cleanest urban air in the world but huge advances made in reducing smog are in danger of falling backwards, experts are warning.New Yorkers breathe air that is 800 times less polluted than Delhi’s and twice as clean as in London and Berlin, the World Health Organization reported. Continue r
  
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• America's great strides in cutting smog at risk of being eroded, experts warn

  02-05-2018 01:04
  Scientists and health experts say Trump administration’s bid to undo pollution rules are ‘extremely counterintuitive and worrying’America’s leading cities have some of the cleanest urban air in the world but huge advances made in reducing smog are in danger of falling backwards, experts are warning.New Yorkers breathe air that is 800 times less polluted than Delhi’s and twice as clean as in London and Berlin, the World Health Organization reported. Continue reading.
  
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• InSight Diary: Mars mission ready to rumble

  02-05-2018 00:48 via bbc.co.uk
  London scientist Tom Pike is looking forward to InSight, Nasa's new mission to the Red Planet.
  
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