Environment news

• Trump White House axes Nasa research into greenhouse gas cuts

  10-05-2018 22:32 via bbc.co.uk
  Cutting Nasa's research jeopardises the ability to measure climate change progress, a journal reveals.
  
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• Pollutionwatch: do face masks really prevent the ill effects of pollution?

  10-05-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Scientists tested nine different masks bought from Beijing, with variable resultsWe are all familiar with images of Beijing citizens wearing masks, but do they work? Scientists from Edinburgh’s Institute for Occupational Medicine tested nine different masks bought from Beijing shops. Generally, the filter in each mask worked well, the best stopped over 99% of the particle pollution and the worst stopped 70% to 80%. Next, volunteers wore the masks in a test chamber filled with diesel exhaus
  
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• New technology could slash emissions from aluminium production

  10-05-2018 20:30 via theguardian.com
  Development could transform how one of the world’s most common materials is madeNew technology has been unveiled that could drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions from aluminium production, in a development that could transform the way one of the world’s most common materials is made.Aluminium is used to make cars, construction materials, industrial machinery, electrical products, drinks cans, foil packaging and much more. But its production relies on processes that have changed li
  
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• New technology could slash carbon emissions from aluminium production

  10-05-2018 20:30 via theguardian.com
  Development could transform how one of the world’s most common materials is madeTechnology has been unveiled that could drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions from aluminium production, in a development that could transform the way one of the world’s most common materials is made.Aluminium is used to make cars, construction materials, industrial machinery, electrical products, drinks cans, foil packaging and much more. But its production relies on processes that have changed little
  
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• Temperature-controlled turtle sex gene found

  10-05-2018 20:22 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists have isolated the gene responsible for temperature-controlled sex determination in turtles.
  
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• Network Rail tree felling faces review over wildlife concerns

  10-05-2018 19:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Removing too much trackside vegetation harms the environment, wildlife charities say.
  
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• UPS to trial electric delivery fleet in UK and France

  10-05-2018 19:11
  UPS announced on Wednesday (9 May) it will trial a pilot fleet of 35 fully electric delivery vehicles (EVs) in the English and French capitals, with a view to a wider rollout.
  
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• UN puts brave face as climate talks get stuck

  10-05-2018 18:07 via bbc.co.uk
  Climate talks in Bonn officially suspended as countries fail to resolve differences about the Paris agreement.
  
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• Campaigners attack plan for new watchdog to protect environment after Brexit

  10-05-2018 17:50 via theguardian.com
  Independent body will be backed by law requiring ministers to ‘have regard to’ core principles but green experts say targets should be included in legislationThe government’s plans for a new environmental watchdog to maintain standards and hold ministers to account in post-Brexit Britain has come under near universal attack from green campaigners.The statutory body was announced as part of ministers’ plans to protect landscapes and nature after the UK leaves the European
  
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• Dozens killed in Kenya after dam bursts – video report

  10-05-2018 17:44 via theguardian.com
  Water broke through the banks of the Patel dam in Solai, northern Kenya, on Wednesday night, killing at least 38 people and forcing hundreds from their homes. Up to 40 people were rescued from the mud and taken to hospital in rescue operations conducted by the Kenya Red Cross and Nakuru county disaster management teams. But many more are feared to be trapped under debris and mud, which have submerged homes over a radius of nearly 1.2 milesDozens killed and many more feared trapped after Kenya's
  
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• Device could make underwater objects appear invisible to sonar

  10-05-2018 17:18 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers have developed a device that could make objects appear invisible to sonar detection.
  
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• The million dollar cow: high-end farming in Brazil – photo essay

  10-05-2018 16:33 via theguardian.com
  Photojournalist Carolina Arantes documented Brazil’s thriving cattle industry and witnessed how farmers work with genetics companies to improve the performance and profitability of their herdsJabriel is an awesome, imposing creature. His humped figure, size and weight represent everything that is prized and revered in a bull. He is quite literally the top of the pyramid in Brazil’s vast, complicated and money-driven cattle industry.Continue reading...
  
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• Palm oil producers are wiping out orangutans – despite multinationals’ promises | Chris Packham

  10-05-2018 15:50 via theguardian.com
  Some of the world’s biggest companies are failing in their pledge to stop deforestation by 2020. Don’t let them forget itFew who watch the documentary Red Ape: Saving the Orangutan tonight on BBC2 could fail to feel some sense of responsibility for the desperate situation faced by Indonesia’s orangutans. These extraordinary creatures are our closest relatives, sharing 97% of our DNA. Their similarity to us is astonishing. They are intelligent, inquisitive, smile and show empath
  
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• Palm oil is wiping out orangutans – despite multinationals’ promises | Chris Packham

  10-05-2018 15:50 via theguardian.com
  Some of the world’s biggest companies are failing in their pledge to stop deforestation by 2020. Don’t let them forget itFew who watch the documentary Red Ape: Saving the Orangutan tonight on BBC2 could fail to feel some sense of responsibility for the desperate situation faced by Indonesia’s orangutans. These extraordinary creatures are our closest relatives, sharing 97% of our DNA. Their similarity to us is astonishing. They are intelligent, inquisitive, smile and show empath
  
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• Sustainable Living brands delivered 70% of Unilever's turnover growth last year

  10-05-2018 14:41
  Unilever has continued to prove the business case for sustainability, with the firm's 'Sustainable Living' brands accounting for a record 70% of its turnover growth last year, and growing 46% faster than the rest of the business.
  
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• New watchdog to protect environment after Brexit, Gove says

  10-05-2018 14:31 via theguardian.com
  Independent body will be backed by law requiring ministers to ‘have regard to’ core principlesA new environmental watchdog to maintain standards and hold ministers to account is to be set up under plans for a green Brexit, the government has announced. Environmental measures from improving air and water quality and protecting endangered species are currently overseen by the European commission and underpinned by green principles across the EU, such as “the polluter pays”.
  
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• Hun migrations 'linked to deadly Justinian Plague'

  10-05-2018 14:17 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists find a deadly plague may have been spread to Europe and western Asia by the Huns.
  
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• US cities losing 36 million trees a year, researchers find

  10-05-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Scientists warn of environmental threats rising from trend that is ‘likely to continue unless policies are altered’Cities in the United States are increasingly seeing concrete in place of greenery as urban areas lose an estimated 36m trees annually, according to a study from the Forest Service.Tree cover in urban areas has declined at a rate of around 175,000 acres per year, while impervious cover – such as roads and buildings – has increased significantly across the coun
  
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• Maasai herders driven off land to make way for luxury safaris, report says

  10-05-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Tanzanian government accused of putting indigenous people at risk in order to grant foreign tourists access to Serengeti wildlifeThe Tanzanian government is putting foreign safari companies ahead of Maasai herding communities as environmental tensions grow on the fringes of the Serengeti national park, according to a new investigation.Hundreds of homes have been burned and tens of thousands of people driven from ancestral land in Loliondo in the Ngorongoro district in recent years to benefit hig
  
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• This is Mission Possible: How Carlsberg is demonstrating business leadership on sustainability

  10-05-2018 11:53
  This series of video interviews showcases the sustainability superheroes who are achieving 'Mission Possible' for their business. Here, Carlsberg's director of sustainability Simon Boas-Hoffmeyer explains how the brewer has adopted a leadership position on sustainability through its new CSR programme, Together Towards Zero.
  
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• Powering ahead: Carlsberg and National Trust to discuss onsite renewables in edie's next webinar

  10-05-2018 11:53
  Individuals and organisations looking to explore the options on onsite technology to drive renewables use and lower energy consumption are encouraged to tune into a free webinar later this month, featuring expert insight from Carlsberg, the National Trust and Centrica Business Solutions.
  
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• Call for government to 'step up' support for hydrogen

  10-05-2018 11:24
  The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) has called on the government to "step up" its support for the use of hydrogen to decarbonise the energy system across power, heat and transport.
  
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• Sharks love jazz but are stumped by classical, say scientists

  10-05-2018 11:21 via theguardian.com
  A study at Macquarie University in Sydney found that sharks could recognise jazz – if there was food on offerResearchers at Sydney’s Macquarie University have discovered that sharks can recognise jazz music.In a paper published in Animal Cognition, the researchers, led by Catarina Vila Pouca, trained juvenile Port Jackson sharks to swim over to where jazz was playing, to receive food. It has been thought that sharks have learned to associate the sound of a boat engine with food, beca
  
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• 'The best bat experience in Britain': Cambridge's nocturnal punting safaris

  10-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  A trip following bats along the river Cam has become one of the hottest tickets in town – and raised money for their protectionIt’s an impossibly idyllic early summer evening on the Backs of Cambridge. A blackbird flutes as a man pressure-washes a table outside a hotel. Mating flies drift on the breeze, alongside a whiff of marijuana. A student lies flat on the riverbank, feet in the water.
  Punting on the river Cam has stopped for the night but one boat slips into the gathering dusk:
  
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• Daylight robbery: grey squirrels stealing millions of pounds of bird seed a year

  10-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  New video analysis reveals the furry thieves are looting up to half the seed put out in feeders, leaving gardeners and birds short-changedDaylight robbery worth millions of pounds is taking place in gardens across the country with grey squirrels raiding bird feeders on a huge scale, new research has revealed.
  The crimes were caught on video camera by scientists, who said grey squirrels are also known to raid birds’ nests for eggs and chicks. So people putting out food for birds are inadver
  
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• Country diary: the pond is a hive of activity

  10-05-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Sandy, Bedfordshire: I lean forward and the skater darts away in a series of fitful starts. A water measurer beneath my gaze stays put at the pond’s edgeA pond skater’s feet feel prey landing on the drumskin-tight surface of the water. Just how can this skater skate on thin “ice” while a fly the size of its eye falls through? Though the fly tries to drag its legs free, surface tension binds it to a sheet of elastic glue.I lean forward and the skater darts away in a series
  
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• Volcano erupts at end of man's garden

  10-05-2018 05:34 via bbc.co.uk
  This Hawaii resident had a surprise when he returned home after fleeing the Kilauea eruption.
  
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• Love bites on hairy bums: wombats' sex lives revealed

  10-05-2018 04:16 via theguardian.com
  Researchers hope that insights into reproductive behaviour will help save endangered species • Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon A whiskery love bite on a hairy bum. It may sound like a perturbing form of foreplay but scientists believe it could help save critically endangered wombat populations in Australia’s north. Scientists have spent two wombat breeding seasons seeking to better understand the sex lives of vulnerable southern hairy-nosed wombats, u
  
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• Unexpected walruses crowd beach of small Alaskan village

  10-05-2018 03:19 via theguardian.com
  Port Heiden is used to an occasional walrus but 200 turned up last month and two weeks later a thousand were spottedWalruses are gathering on the Alaskan peninsula and scientists are trying to work out why.Residents of a village of 110 on the peninsula see the occasional walrus in Bering Sea waters, but when 200 packed a beach just outside the community, it took them by surprise. Continue reading...
  
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• UN climate stalemate sees extra week of talks added

  10-05-2018 01:15 via bbc.co.uk
  Negotiations deadlocked as delegates get bogged down in technical arguments about the Paris climate pact.
  
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