Environment news

• 'From coal to clean' – UK does not need to turn to gas, says WWF

  13-05-2018 13:09 via theguardian.com
  Report suggests renewables, battery storage and flexible technologies can replace coal plantsThe UK has no need to build new large gas-fired power stations to replace the coal plants that the government has pledged to switch off by 2025, the World Wide Fund for Nature has argued.The gap can instead be filled by renewables, battery storage and flexible technologies, allowing the UK to go from “coal to clean” and skip new gas completely, according to a report by the environmental group
  
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• Bigger mortgages for greener homes? Yep, that's right | Adam Vaughan

  13-05-2018 11:30 via theguardian.com
  Welsh scheme will factor in home’s energy efficiency into lenders’ affordability calculationsBorrowers will be able to take out a bigger mortgage when buying greener properties for the first time, under a pioneering scheme to encourage energy efficiency.Research has found that factoring in the efficiency of a home into lenders’ affordability calculations could allow them to increase loans by £11,500 because buyers’ electricity and gas bills will be lower. Continue r
  
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• Kings of the wild frontier

  13-05-2018 09:50 via theguardian.com
  Every year, king salmon swim 2,000 miles up Alaska’s Yukon river to spawn. Their journey is vital to the native people and animals – but now the numbers are dwindling. One man followed their run to find out whyIn 2013, I sat in a courtroom in Bethel, Alaska, and watched the trial of 23 Yup’ik fishermen, accused of flouting a ban on the fishing of king salmon the previous summer. The ban had been implemented by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as king salmon numbers plumme
  
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• ‘Young people are angry’: the teenage activists shaping our future

  13-05-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Fed up with waiting for the older generation to sort out its problems, a growing number of teenage activists are taking matters into their own hands. Here, six motivated people reveal why they’ve decided to fight for a better worldIn a political climate where most adults are inert with despair, a growing number of teenagers are responding with action. After 14 children and three adults were massacred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, it was students – not
  
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• Carnivorous plants: so you thought the triffids were make-believe…

  13-05-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  A guide to flora with a hunger for flesh – and the intriguing and elaborate ways in which they get hold of itScientists at the University of Freiburg in Germany have for the first time characterised the snapping movement of this rare aquatic carnivorous plant, found in wetlands around the world. Aldrovanda vesiculosa snaps its “trap” shut 10 times faster than the much larger Venus flytrap, using a combination of hydraulics and the release of pre-stress to capture water fle
  
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• Warning Cape York land-clearing approval puts Great Barrier Reef at risk

  13-05-2018 07:14 via theguardian.com
  Conservation groups call on Coalition to honour reef budget pledge by overturning Kingvale station decision• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonThe Turnbull government faces a test of its $500m budget commitment to protect the Great Barrier Reef, after federal environment officials ruled that a farmer could clear almost 2,000 hectares of Queensland forest.A draft report from the Department of Environment recommends that the clearing at Kingvale station on Cape
  
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• 'Oldest' turtle, 80, returns to Blackpool after 15 years

  13-05-2018 01:30 via bbc.co.uk
  The giant green sea turtle is thought to be oldest of its kind in captivity in the UK.
  
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