Environment news

• Birdwatch: garden warblers are losing their scrub habitat

  12-06-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Garden warblers in fact prefer thick scrub, which is dying out in our tidy countrysideSome birds are very well named: such as the cuckoo, treecreeper and song thrush. Others, including Kentish plover, grey wagtail and garden warbler, are almost wilfully misleading. Garden warblers are, unlike their cousin the blackcap, hardly ever found in gardens. They prefer thick scrub, a transitory habitat that is becoming harder and harder to find in our increasingly tidy countryside. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Philanthropists' $1m pledge aims to double largest cat-free zone

  12-06-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Andrew and Jane Clifford promise to match donations in bid to stop feral catsA $1m donation to the fight against feral cats could help to double the size of the world’s largest cat-free sanctuary or help genetically neuter cats, conservationists say. Sydney philanthropists Andrew and Jane Clifford have pledged to match every donation made to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy up to $1m before the end of the financial year, hoping to create a $2m fund to eradicate Australia’s cat pla
  
  Read more

• Cut out meat, pets and kids to save the Earth | Letters

  12-06-2018 19:13 via theguardian.com
  Readers react to George Monbiot’s article on dropping meat and dairy, news about Sainsbury’s selling vegan ‘fake meats’ , and a report on meat being found in vegan and vegetarian mealsAlongside George Monbiot’s suggestion (Want to save the planet? Drop meat and dairy, 8 June), another way to reduce greenhouse gases is to stop keeping pets. It’s been calculated that an average dog has an ecological footprint twice as large as that of a large car.Like meat-
  
  Read more

• Top hat

  12-06-2018 17:18 via bbc.co.uk
  With the first 500mph runs now pushed back to mid-2019, there is more time to prepare the world's first supersonic car.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Ben & Jerry's joins the campaign to support onshore windfarms

  12-06-2018 17:17 via theguardian.com
  With names like Strawberry Breezecake and Cherry Gale-cia, ice-cream makers push for government re-thinkTubs of Strawberry Breeze-cake, Cherry Gale-cia and other wind-themed ice-creams will feature in a campaign by Ben & Jerry’s to persuade the government to rethink its opposition to onshore windfarms.The renamed flavours will be sold at half price on “windy Wednesdays” to support a pro-renewables push by the Unilever-owned firm, which has a history of campaigning on climat
  
  Read more

• Government set to back down in post-Brexit green standards dispute

  12-06-2018 15:11
  The Government will reportedly this week give its backing to an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill that aims to ensure that environmental standards are maintained post-Brexit.
  
  Read more

• Trump really has achieved a historic breakthrough – for the Kim dynasty | Jonathan Freedland

  12-06-2018 14:54 via theguardian.com
  With a shake of the hand, the US president has tightened Kim Jong-un’s grip over an enslaved nation – and got almost nothing in returnA useful way to test the deal Donald Trump has reached with Kim Jong-un is to imagine what Trump himself would have said had it been Barack Obama rather than him who shook hands with the North Korean dictator. Trump and his echo chamber on Fox News and elsewhere would have poured buckets of derision on Obama for the piece of paper he signed with Kim, f
  
  Read more

• Scotland outpaces rest of UK in carbon reduction, halving emissions since 1990

  12-06-2018 13:39
  Scotland has met its statutory annual climate change target for the third consecutive year, achieving a 49% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions against a 1990 baseline.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Battery-stored solar powers Kingfisher's first 'net-zero' energy store

  12-06-2018 12:19
  Home improvement retail giant Kingfisher has unveiled its first UK net-zero energy store, which brings together solar panels, battery storage and air source heat pumps to power operations.
  
  Read more

• Interface goes carbon neutral for entire product range

  12-06-2018 12:13
  Flooring giant Interface will only offer carbon-neutral products as standard to buyers, with the firm's entire product range now listed under a Carbon Neutral Floors programme.
  
  Read more

• Businesses, NGOs make joint plea for higher EU ambition on climate change

  12-06-2018 10:25
  A unique coalition of businesses and investors representing over €21 trillion in assets have joined forces with local authorities and civil society groups to urge EU leaders to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon economy in order to keep global warming below 2°C.
  
  Read more

• Birthday Honours: Sustainability leaders make Queen's 2018 list

  12-06-2018 09:07
  The Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours list has recognised the outstanding achievements of a number of senior figures across the UK's sustainability and energy sectors.
  
  Read more

• How universal basic income and rewilding could save the planet | Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin

  12-06-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Are we doomed to societal collapse? Not if we break the mould of ever-greater production and consumptionEnough concrete has been produced to cover the entire surface of the Earth in a layer two millimetres thick. Enough plastic has been manufactured to clingfilm it as well. We produce 4.8bn tonnes of our top five crops, plus 4.8 billion head of livestock, annually. There are 1.2bn motor vehicles, 2bn personal computers, and more mobile phones than the 7.5 billion people on Earth.The result of al
  
  Read more

• Windfarm experts publish no research and had no face-to-face meetings last year

  12-06-2018 07:17 via theguardian.com
  Committee was set up by former prime minister Tony Abbott to handle complaints about wind turbine noise• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonAn independent scientific committee on wind turbines established by the Coalition in 2015 failed to hold one face-to-face meeting last year and failed to have its research accepted by peer-reviewed journals.The independent scientific committee on wind turbines was created to advise on the science of potential impacts of win
  
  Read more

• The last bat: the mystery of Britain’s most solitary animal

  12-06-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  In a dank Sussex tunnel, a solitary greater mouse-eared bat roosts each winter. Is he the only one left in Britain? By Patrick BarkhamWe cannot speak of its loneliness, but it must be Britain’s most solitary animal. For the last 16 years, every winter, a male greater mouse-eared bat has taken up residence 300 metres inside a disused and exceedingly damp railway tunnel in West Sussex. The greater mouse-eared bat has been all but extinct in this country for decades. This is the only remainin
  
  Read more

• Country diary: flowers emerge from the shingle

  12-06-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Pagham Harbour, West Sussex: Among the detritus, towers of red valerian shake in the wind and sea kale plants explode in a flurry of wavy green leaves Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• It's Hooray for Climate Scientists Day (formerly Hug a Climate Scientist Day) | First Dog on the Moon

  12-06-2018 04:30 via theguardian.com
  12 June is the day to express thanks to climate scientists #hoorayforclimatescientistsSign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are publishedGet all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Israel to top up Sea of Galilee after years of drought

  12-06-2018 02:35 via theguardian.com
  Inland lake where Christians believe Jesus walked on water has reached its lowest level in a century The shrinking Sea of Galilee, the inland lake where Christians believe Jesus walked on water, is to be topped up with desalinated seawater.A plan given Israeli cabinet approval will pump 100 million cubic metres of water annually by 2022 into the lake in the Galilee region, said Yechezkel Lifshitz, from the country’s energy and water ministry. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Giant African baobab trees die suddenly after thousands of years

  12-06-2018 00:13 via theguardian.com
  Demise of four out of 13 of the ancient landmarks linked to climate change by researchersSome of Africa’s oldest and biggest baobab trees have abruptly died, wholly or in part, in the past decade, according to researchers.The trees, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 years and in some cases as wide as a bus is long, may have fallen victim to climate change, the team speculated. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @UK_Environment on Twitter!