Environment news

• Pollutionwatch: Air contamination drops by 30% in China

  24-05-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  WHO database lowers Beijing’s particulate ranking from 40th worst in world to 187th, as coal plants flagged as key culpritBeijing is slowly shedding its image as the world’s most polluted city. In 2013, it ranked as the 40th worst city for the particulate PM2.5 in the World Health Organisation global database. Four years on, thanks in part to a crackdown on polluters, it stands in 187th place. Air pollution in the 62 Chinese cities tracked by the WHO dropped by an average of 30% betw
  
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• Seal released after recovering from plastic air filter injury

  24-05-2018 22:04 via bbc.co.uk
  The seal named Relashio was close to death when he was rescued.
  
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• UK insurers lead the ranks for climate action

  24-05-2018 20:19
  UK insurance companies Aviva and Legal & General have taken two of the top four spots in a ranking of global insurers on their climate strategies, but globally the sector is struggling to set climate targets in line with the Paris Agreement.
  
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• Why is there a row about Galileo?

  24-05-2018 20:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Britain may be denied full access to the EU's Galileo satellite navigation system on security grounds after Brexit.
  
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• Giant canyons discovered in Antarctica

  24-05-2018 20:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Vast troughs are identified in one of the last places to be explored on Earth - under the ice at the South Pole.
  
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• Brexit: UK wants £1bn back from EU if it is excluded from Galileo

  24-05-2018 19:39 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK steps up its war of words with the EU over being shut out of new satellite navigation system.
  
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• Birds had to relearn flight after meteor wiped out dinosaurs

  24-05-2018 18:58 via theguardian.com
  Fossil records suggest only flightless birds survived when T rex was wiped off the EarthBirds had to rediscover flight after the meteor strike that killed off the dinosaurs, scientists say.The cataclysm 66m years ago not only wiped out Tyrannosaurus rex and ground-dwelling dinosaur species, but also flying birds, a detailed survey of the fossil record suggests. Continue reading...
  
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• How ancestors of living birds survived asteroid strike

  24-05-2018 18:48 via bbc.co.uk
  Survival depended on whether ancient 'birds' lived on the forest floor or in the branches, say scientists.
  
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• When the RSPB made feathers fly in the hat trade | Letters

  24-05-2018 18:42 via theguardian.com
  Tessa Boase writes of the successful campaign against ‘murderous millinery’, while Malcolm Smith recalls the millions of birds slaughtered to provide for the feather-decorated hats obsession in the 19th-centuryYour feature on the ethics of wearing feathers (G2, 22 May) name-checks the American socialites behind the Audubon society of 1896, but makes no mention of the women who founded our own Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, with precisely the same goal, seven years earlier
  
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• What the government is doing to address the air pollution problem | Letter from Michael Gove MP, environment secretary

  24-05-2018 18:41 via theguardian.com
  Michael Gove, the enviroment secretary, responds to a Guardian editorial on his clean air strategyYou write that “the main contributor to the air quality crisis … is road transport” (Editorial, 23 May). Road transport contributes 34% of nitrogen dioxide emissions and 12% of particulate matter emissions. The majority of air pollution comes from other sources. In particular, domestic burning contributes 38% of primary particulate matter – the most damaging pollutant t
  
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• Clothes moths’ part in the circle of life | Brief letters

  24-05-2018 18:41 via theguardian.com
  Taxpayer’s right to healthcare | ‘Falling’ pregnant | Female film critics | Nancy Banks-Smith | Clothes mothsYou report (24 May) that Pauline Pennant, a UK citizen living overseas, pays UK taxes through her pension, earned after 30 years working with the NHS, yet is no longer entitled to free healthcare. If she is no longer entitled to this because she lives overseas, then why does she still pay UK tax on her pension and what, or who, is this deducted tax being used for?
  Lin Al
  
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• Hilton to halve environmental impact, starting with plastic straw ban

  24-05-2018 14:28
  Global hospitality firm Hilton has unveiled a number of new sustainability ambitions that has seen it become the first in its sector to set an approved science-based target, alongside goals to halve water use and waste and remove plastic straws from its estate by the end of the year.
  
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• Hilton to ban plastic straws in first step of approved science-based targets

  24-05-2018 14:28
  Global hospitality firm Hilton has become the first in its sector to set an approved science-based target aimed at halving its environmental impact, with the first plan of action in place to remove plastic straws from its estate by the end of the year.
  
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• VIDEO: On the Mission Possible sofa with Futerra's Solitaire Townsend and ICRS's Anita Longley

  24-05-2018 13:34
  The second episode of our new sustainable business chat show sees Futerra's co-founder Solitaire Townsend joined by Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (ICRS) chair Anita Longley to discuss the sustainability leaders of tomorrow.
  
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• Farne Island puffin population drop sparks concern

  24-05-2018 13:29 via bbc.co.uk
  Initial findings in the National Trust's five-yearly survey suggest an overall decline of 12%.
  
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• 'We can't see a future': group takes EU to court over climate change

  24-05-2018 12:25 via theguardian.com
  Litigants from eight countries claim EU institutions are not protecting fundamental rights Lawyers acting for a group including a French lavender farmer and members of the indigenous Sami community in Sweden have launched legal action against the EU’s institutions for failing to adequately protect them against climate change.A case is being pursued in the Luxembourg-based general court, Europe’s second highest, against the European parliament and the council of the European Union for
  
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• Scotland draft climate change bill sets 90%-by-2050 emission reduction target

  24-05-2018 12:12 via theguardian.com
  Holyrood says ‘net-zero’ carbon emissions are ultimate aim but climate campaigners say target is disappointingNew targets will set Scotland on course to become one of the first countries in the world to achieve a 100% reduction in carbon emissions, the Scottish government has claimed.The draft climate change bill, published on Thursday morning, sets a target of a 90% reduction by 2050 – which the UK Committee on Climate Change states is currently “at the limit of feasibil
  
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• 'It’s wrong to stink up other people’s lives': fighting the manure lagoons of North Carolina

  24-05-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Pigs outstripped people in Duplin county long ago - but now the residents are fighting back
  Two poles that once hoisted a clothes line stand rusting and unused in Elsie Herring’s back garden in eastern North Carolina. Herring lives next door to a field where pig manure is sprayed and the drifting faecal matter wasn’t kind to her drying clothes.“The clothes would stink so you’d wash them again and again until they fell apart,” said Herring, whose family has lived in
  
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• Tesco calls for recycling reform as it strives for 100% closed-loop packaging

  24-05-2018 11:20
  Supermarket giant Tesco has strengthened its ambitions to make all its packaging across its UK operations closed-loop and is now calling on the Government to support the chain's aim by reforming the nation's recycling infrastructure.
  
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• Revealed: majority of politicians on key EU farming panel have industry links

  24-05-2018 11:17 via theguardian.com
  Most MEPs on the influential agriculture committee have business ties, new research shows, raising concerns about conflicts of interest
  Most of the politicians on the European parliament’s influential agriculture committee have business or personal links to the farming sector they are charged with regulating, research reveals. The key EU panel oversees some of the most important agricultural decisions in European politics. Its MEPs negotiated the last common agricultural policy (CAP) settl
  
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• Air pollution worse inside London classrooms than outside, study finds

  24-05-2018 11:01 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: study of schools in capital finds dangerous levels of fine particulate pollution within classrooms, putting children at risk Children in London schools are being exposed to higher levels of damaging air pollution inside the classroom than outside, putting them at risk of lifelong health problems, a new study has revealed.Scientists studied five primary schools and one nursery in the capital as part of research into levels of air pollution indoors. The research shows that outdoor air p
  
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• Back from the brink: chequered skipper butterfly takes to English skies again

  24-05-2018 10:07 via theguardian.com
  Dozens of fast-flying butterflies released in a secret location in Northamptonshire forest after disappearing in 1976It mysteriously vanished from England after the long hot summer of 1976, but the chequered skipper butterfly is taking to the skies again as part of a bid to revive 20 endangered species.Several dozen mostly female butterflies have been collected in Belgium and released in a secret location in Rockingham forest, Northamptonshire. Continue reading...
  
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• One week left to register for onsite renewables webinar

  24-05-2018 10:01
  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 next week, featuring expert insight from Carlsberg, the National Trust and Centrica Business Solutions.
  
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• 'They're everywhere': has the decline of the seal hunt saved the polar bear?

  24-05-2018 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Despite vanishing sea ice and shorter winters, Labrador’s polar bear population is among the healthiest in the world – and it could be thanks to the harp sealsGuido Rich, 28, an Inuit hunter from Rigolet, Labrador, brings his Ski-Doo to a careful stop on the sea ice, mindful of the precious cargo it hauls: the body of an 800lb male polar bear. It takes Rich and two other men to roll the animal off the sled and on to the ice, while his wife and young children watch. His sister, Natash
  
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• Car dealer tactics stall electric car sales

  24-05-2018 09:58 via bbc.co.uk
  "Dismissive" dealers are a major barrier to boosting sales of electric cars says a new study.
  
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• King Island birds face extinction without urgent federal help, residents say

  24-05-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Wings on King group warns: ‘We may have lost the King Island brown thornbill and the King Island scrubtit already’• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Residents of King Island in Tasmania want the federal government to intervene to try to stop two bird species from going extinct.The King Island brown thornbill and the King Island scrubtit were recently identified as numbers one and three on a list of Australian bird species most likely to go extinc
  
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• Country diary: dazzled by the common's treasure

  24-05-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Biggleswade Common, Bedfordshire: Sunseeking yellow buttercups add to the floral riches of the meadowsA generous-hearted fellow country diarist, a native of Biggleswade, tipped me off at the beginning of the month to the whereabouts of treasure on the county’s largest common. Biggleswade Common has form: at the turn of the millennium, a detectorist unearthed a gold Saxon coin there that fetched a third of a million pounds at auction. Dawn Lawrence sent me in search of more riches, with pre
  
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• Building the world’s largest cat-proof fence – video

  24-05-2018 03:45 via theguardian.com
  Footage captured by the  Australian Wildlife Conservancy shows the construction of world’s largest cat-proof fence. Completed in central Australia, the 94 square kilometre sanctuary will provide protection  for endangered marsupials.The 44km fence – made of 85,000 pickets, 400km of wire and 130km of netting – surrounds the Newhaven wildlife sanctuary, a former cattle station that has been bought by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. Continue reading..
  
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• 'You're not going to die': 911 transcripts from cougar attack reveal panic and desperation

  24-05-2018 02:45 via theguardian.com
  Recordings of emergency calls in Washington state detail efforts to locate mountain bikers stalked by cougarRecordings of emergency calls after a fatal cougar attack in Washington state last weekend detail how dispatchers struggled to figure out exactly where the surviving victim was - and how worried he was about his friend who had been taken by the animal.Isaac Sederbaum was mountain biking with SJ Brooks on logging roads near North Bend, in the Cascade Mountain foothills east of Seattle, on S
  
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• Fears puffins could die out on Farne Islands as numbers plummet

  24-05-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  National Trust finds 12% decline since 2013, with the population of one island off Northumberland down 42%Puffin numbers at one of Britain’s most important habitats have fallen sharply, raising fears they could die out completely there within a century.Every five years National Trust rangers carry out a census of the birds on the Farne Islands, and the latest survey has potentially grim news for the colourful seabird. Continue reading...
  
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