Environment news

• Livia Firth: It’s not realistic to think we're going to be in a world without leather or wool

  06-05-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Environmental fashion campaigner visits Tasmania to learn about wool production, its impact on the environment and mulesingLivia Firth still has the wool sweaters she wore as a teenager. The environmental fashion campaigner, who grew up in Italy, remembers hand washing her sweaters each summer, carefully storing them away, then unpacking them the following winter. She would wear them year after year so she had to look after them. This was before fast, disposable fashion she says, “We did i
  
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• Impending blight: how Statoil's plans threaten the Great Australian Bight

  06-05-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Supporters say the oil firm has experience drilling in rough seas but conservationists fear damage to wildlife and fisheriesThe cold and violent waters of the Great Australian Bight are home to one of the country’s most biodiverse and important marine ecosystems, the heart of its fishing industry, a growing tourism hotspot – and potentially its newest oil field.Of the species in the bight, 85% are found nowhere else on the planet. It is a breeding ground for the endangered southern r
  
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• Thai activists claim victory over luxury housing on forest land

  06-05-2018 18:39 via theguardian.com
  Government bows to protesters and agrees to shelve development near Chiang MaiEnvironmental activists in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai claimed victory on Sunday after the country’s military government agreed not to continue the development of luxury property on forest land. The decision follows a demonstration in Chiang Mai last week in which more than 1,000 people protested against the construction of a luxury development earmarked to house judges in the foothills of the Doi Suthep
  
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• Cracks in nuclear reactor will hit EDF Energy with £120m bill

  06-05-2018 16:49 via theguardian.com
  Problems at Hunterston B in Scotland trigger doubts over six other 1970s and 80s plantsThe six month closure of one of Britain’s oldest nuclear reactors will burn a £120m hole in the revenues of owner EDF Energy and has raised questions over the reliability of the country’s ageing nuclear fleet.EDF said this week that it was taking reactor 3 of Hunterston B in Scotland offline for half a year, after inspections found more cracks than expected in the graphite bricks at the react
  
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• Cracks in nuclear reactor threaten UK energy policy

  06-05-2018 16:49 via theguardian.com
  Problems at Hunterston B in Scotland trigger doubts over six other 1970s and 80s plantsThe government’s energy policy is under renewed pressure after the prolonged closure of one of Britain’s oldest nuclear reactors because of cracks in its graphite core raised questions over the future of six other plants built in the 1970s and 1980s. The temporary shutdown of reactor three at Hunterston B in Scotland is also expected to burn an estimated £120m hole in the revenues of its owne
  
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• New law to tackle electric cars’ silent menace to pedestrians

  06-05-2018 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Sound emitters will give warning of vehicles travelling at low speeds They are green, clean and make very little noise. It is this latter quality, initially seen by many as a good thing, that has become an acute concern for safety campaigners, who fear that the rising number of electric vehicles constitutes a silent menace.When they travel at under 20mph the vehicles can barely be heard, especially by cyclists or pedestrians listening to music through headphones. “The greatest risks associ
  
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• Celebrity species: from the DiCaprio water beetle to Obama spiders

  06-05-2018 07:59 via theguardian.com
  Forget the awards and acclaim – nothing says you’ve hit the big time like having a creature named after youA new species of water beetle, discovered by scientists in Borneo, has been named after the Oscar-winning star of The Revenant. With its partially retractable head and slightly protruding eyes, Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi was not named for its resemblance to the 43-year-old actor and environmentalist but because the scientists “wanted to highlight that even the smallest
  
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• Fatbergs are the true time capsules of all we’d like to forget | Eva Wiseman

  06-05-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  They are every sin we’ve ever committed, shoved into a small hole and covered with hot grease. We get the celebrities we deserve and we have truly earned the fatbergWhen we weren’t concentrating, Britain’s fatbergs became international celebrities. And that’s on us, that’s something we’re going to have to deal with – we created our own Kardashian clan, and a special house for them in the sewer under KFC Aldgate East. We Frankensteined this thing, this be
  
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• English Heritage plans to restore ‘great lost garden’ of Alexander Pope

  06-05-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Project to recreate poet’s London estate accused of subverting history by opponents, who say elaborate grounds may never have existedThe restoration, even at huge cost, of what English Heritage calls one of “the great lost gardens of London” sounds a worthwhile, even noble, project. But what if that “lost garden” is a myth, a pipe dream never really built? English Heritage plans to transform the estate of Marble Hill, a grand house by the Thames, by reintroducing el
  
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• 'Soul destroying'

  06-05-2018 02:40 via bbc.co.uk
  The eco-friendly hobbyists trying to stem the rising tide of plastic in the seas.
  
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• Fish and chip shops battered by soaring costs and freak weather

  06-05-2018 01:02 via theguardian.com
  Brexit, online delivery services and bans on plastic threaten Britain’s national dishAnyone wanting to understand the economic problems facing Britain in the early 21st century need only consider its national dish.Chippies are confronting a long list of issues that threaten to send the price of their product rocketing as the holiday season approaches. Brexit, the popularity of online delivery services, freakish weather and concerns about the pollution caused by plastic are all putting pres
  
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