Environment news

• Weatherwatch: pollution can make clouds drier

  28-05-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  New findings contrast with some climate models that indicate aerosols make clouds ‘wetter’What’s in a cloud? Water, certainly, but also tiny particles known as “aerosols”. Whether they originate from wildfires, volcanoes, sandstorms, ship emissions or power stations, aerosols alter the properties of a cloud. By providing a surface for water to condense on to, they can help water droplets to form. But exactly how aerosols alter clouds is not clear. Now a new satellit
  
  Read more

• Land-clearing wipes out $1.bn taxpayer-funded emissions gains

  28-05-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Official data shows forest-clearing released 160m tonnes of carbon dioxide since 2015• Sign up to receive the top stories every morningMore than $1bn of public money being spent on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by planting trees and restoring habitat under the Coalition’s Direct Action climate policy will have effectively been wiped out by little more than two years of forest-clearing elsewhere in the country, official government data suggests. The $2.55bn emissions reduction fund
  
  Read more

• Dutch government appeals against court ruling over emissions cuts

  28-05-2018 18:48 via theguardian.com
  Judges ordered a 25% carbon emissions cut by 2020 in the first successful lawsuit against a government’s climate policyThe Dutch government has launched a bid to overturn a landmark climate ruling, arguing that judges in The Hague “sidelined democracy” when they ordered a 25% cut in carbon emissions by 2020.Government plans for a lesser 17% cut in CO2 pollution were deemed unlawful three years ago, in the first successful lawsuit against a government’s climate policy. Con
  
  Read more

• National parks are more than natural | Letters

  28-05-2018 18:04 via theguardian.com
  Our special landscapes are cultural constructs, says Tom Greeves. And public authorities need to think more about urban green spaces, says Ann SharrockMichael Gove needs to be careful in his choice of vocabulary about national parks (England may get more national parks after Gove announces review, 28 May). His review suggests that it is part of a process to enhance protection of “natural” landscapes and habitats. But our English national parks and all areas being considered for desig
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Invisible scum on sea cuts CO2 exchange with air 'by up to 50%'

  28-05-2018 17:39 via theguardian.com
  Scientists say the findings have major implications for predicting our future climateAn invisible layer of scum on the sea surface can reduce carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and the oceans by up to 50%, scientists have discovered. Researchers from Heriot-Watt, Newcastle and Exeter universities say the findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday, have major implications for predicting our future climate.Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• EU challenges UK to 'race to the top' on plastics reduction

  28-05-2018 16:58 via theguardian.com
  Brussels proposes ban on plastic straws and cutlery and calls out Brexiter Michael GoveBrussels has challenged the UK’s environment secretary, Michael Gove, to try to outdo it in an environmental “race to the top” as it proposed a ban on plastic straws, cutlery, plates, cotton buds and balloon sticks.Frans Timmermans, the European commission’s first vice-president, directly addressed Gove, a fervent Brexiter, as he unveiled details of the planned prohibition, along with m
  
  Read more

• Joy and despair in Alaska: Adam Weymouth on his 2,000 mile odyssey

  28-05-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Weymouth spent months paddling through the wilderness in a canoe, tracking the mighty king salmon. What he found was an ecosystem – and a culture – under threatThe sun is shining on the rear deck of Adam Weymouth’s barge, and the hawthorn along the banks of the river Lea is bright with new growth. But despite the natural beauty all around him in this pocket of London, he’s finding it hard to believe we can avert climate catastrophe: “It’s just really hard to g
  
  Read more

• Huge rise in food redistribution to people in need across UK

  28-05-2018 09:01 via theguardian.com
  Charity FareShare is feeding almost a quarter of a million people a week with food that would otherwise go to waste – a 60% rise since last year The UK’s largest food redistribution charity is helping to feed a record 772,000 people a week – 60% more than the previous year – with food that would otherwise be wasted, new figures reveal.One in eight people in the UK go hungry every day – with the most needy increasingly dependent on food banks – yet perfectly go
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 'Unfortunate' the carbon tax coincided with soaring network costs, Rod Sims says

  28-05-2018 08:26 via theguardian.com
  ACCC chair says electricity price spike due to network charges, not carbon tax or renewablesSign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonThe timing of the carbon tax was “unfortunate” because it coincided with soaring electricity network costs that have underpinned increases to household bills, the head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has told a forum in Brisbane.The ACCC is next month due to hand to government its final report on the
  
  Read more

• The bloody truth about conservation: we need to talk about killing | Mary Colwell

  28-05-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  A civilised debate on predator control is the first step towards protecting Britain’s ever declining number of wild speciesEverything eats to live, but some creatures compete with human interests. They eat our crops and livestock, attack the wildlife that we want to protect, or the game that we want to shoot. The most common predators we routinely cull are foxes and crows followed by stoats, weasels, magpies and rooks. But other species protected by law are increasingly under the spotlight
  
  Read more

• Honduran villagers take legal action to stop mining firm digging up graves for gold

  28-05-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Families face pressure to decide the fate of their relatives’ grave, dividing the community of Azacualpa where as many as 350 bodies have already been exhumed Nothing is sacred in the path of gold miners in northwestern Honduras – not even the dead.A transnational mining company, Aura Minerals, has been digging up graves in the 200-year-old cemetery near the community of Azacualpa, La Union, to clear the way to dig for gold. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Hand mowing begins as mist still hangs above the meadow – Country Diary, 1 June 1918

  28-05-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  1 June 1918: It was a small field, hand-mown; swathes were heavy, deadening the sweep of scythes, but tall wild parsley, oat-grass spiked almost like cornSurrey
  The morning sun was yet red on the horizon and mist hung above the lower meadows when the first mowing of grass began. Scent came across the lane fresher and sweeter than the odour from the thorns. It was a small field, hand-mown; swathes were heavy, deadening the sweep of scythes, but tall wild parsley, oat-grass spiked almost like corn
  
  Read more

• Flash floods in Maryland leaves main street underwater – video

  28-05-2018 06:13 via theguardian.com
  Flood waters and heavy rain has completely submerged the main street of the historic Ellicott City in Maryland. Authorities were assessing the damage after the flood waters swept away parked cars on Sunday. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Return of the bison: herd makes surprising comeback on Dutch coast

  28-05-2018 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Endangered species can thrive in habitats other than forests, paving way for their returnEighty years after they were hunted to extinction, the successful reintroduction of a herd of wild European bison onto the dunes of the Dutch coast is paving the way for their return across the continent.The largest land-living animal in Europe was last seen in the Netherlands centuries ago, and was wiped out on the continent by 1927. Despite successful efforts to breed the species again in the wilds of Pola
  
  Read more

• BHP and Queensland reach 'in principle' agreement over $288m coal royalties

  28-05-2018 04:07 via theguardian.com
  Case centres on state’s 2015 decision to hit company with bill for unpaid royalties and interestSign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon
  Mining giant BHP and the Queensland government have reached an “in principle” agreement to settle a long-running $288m coal royalty dispute, the state’s supreme court has heard this morning.The case, which experts said would likely have broad implications about the way mining royalties could be calculated and lev
  
  Read more

• Are captive dolphins 'happy'?

  28-05-2018 02:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists have tried to measure how dolphins at a French marine park feel about their environment.
  
  Read more

• Dolphin 'happiness' measured by scientists in France

  28-05-2018 01:33 via bbc.co.uk
  Animal welfare researchers measure how captive dolphins feel about their environment.
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!