Environment news

• What is a shelf cloud?

  02-07-2018 23:23 via bbc.co.uk
  The weather system was captured at Lake Superior, Michigan, in the US.
  
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• Weatherwatch: wildfires highlight importance of UK's peatlands

  02-07-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Moorland plants fulfil a vital role by locking away huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphereThe wildfires in Lancashire and Greater Manchester are a disaster, not least because of the blot on the landscape they will leave behind once the flames are out. Although the hot dry weather is clearly to blame, so too is damage over the years from drainage that dried out the peat and turned it into a powder keg.Peatlands may not look glamorous but they are a hugely important national treasure. They hel
  
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• The hearts of oak in England’s forests | Letter

  02-07-2018 18:53 via theguardian.com
  Simon Hodgson of Forest Enterprise England says broadleaved trees, including oak, are still seen as a strong part of the country’s homegrown timber supplyRe your article (‘There’s no oak left in England, just no more’, 28 June), the Forestry Commission in England over the past eight years has planted almost 1.7m oak trees (on top of those that we encourage to grow naturally from self-set acorns), the vast majority with the aim to supply high-quality timber and all in plac
  
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• Koala chlamydia vaccine possible with DNA study

  02-07-2018 18:31 via bbc.co.uk
  The strain is different to that found in humans, but a genome study hopes to provide clues to fight the infection.
  
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• Newborn planet pictured for first time

  02-07-2018 18:05 via bbc.co.uk
  Astronomers have directly imaged a recently formed planet in a distant solar system.
  
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• Artist forms whale choir in North Shields

  02-07-2018 17:45 via bbc.co.uk
  French artist Marina Rees has formed a "whale choir" to launch her new exhibition
  
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• Science to chew on

  02-07-2018 17:19 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists fail to find a koala cuteness gene but DNA may lead to a vaccine for chlamydia in the iconic marsupial.
  
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• Saving koalas: Gene study promises solution to deadly sex disease

  02-07-2018 17:19 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists fail to find a koala cuteness gene but DNA may lead to a vaccine for chlamydia in the iconic marsupial.
  
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• Greens announce three sets of contenders for leadership contest

  02-07-2018 17:01 via theguardian.com
  Joint ticket of Jonathan Bartley and Siân Berry the favourite as Caroline Lucas steps downThree sets of contenders have put themselves forward to become the next leaders of the Greens, it was announced on Monday, with the joint ticket of Jonathan Bartley and Siân Berry seen as the strong favourite to take over in the absence of Caroline Lucas.
  Lucas, the party’s sole MP and best-known figure, has spent two years as joint leader with Bartley, a councillor in Lambeth, south Londo
  
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• Chicken farmer given suspended sentence for free-range egg fraud

  02-07-2018 16:35 via theguardian.com
  James Gigg, from Dorset, was found guilty of overstocking his henhousesA chicken farmer has been given a suspended jail sentence for falsely claiming that eggs produced in crowded henhouses were free-range.Eggs from James Gigg’s farm in Dorset were sold to shops and delicatessens that marketed them to customers as free-range. Continue reading...
  
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• Oil company's 'draconian and anti-democratic' injunction challenged

  02-07-2018 15:03 via theguardian.com
  Environmental campaigners appear in London’s high court to oppose UK Oil and Gas’s attempt to ban protests at three UK sitesSix environmental campaigners have taken legal action to overturn a broad injunction which is being sought by an energy firm against protesters.The group went to the high court in London on Monday to oppose the injunction which is being sought by UK Oil and Gas (UKOG). Continue reading...
  
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• Fish rescued as River Teme dries up in heatwave

  02-07-2018 13:57 via bbc.co.uk
  More than 130 trout and salmon are saved after river levels plummet.
  
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• Botanical life in close-up – in pictures

  02-07-2018 13:50 via theguardian.com
  Colin Salter’s new book is a selection of extraordinary electron microscopic images of the plant world around us, including seeds, pollen, fruiting bodies, trees and leaves, flowers, vegetables and fruitContinue reading...
  
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• Report: NHS could save £130m by updating energy systems

  02-07-2018 13:44
  The NHS could save at least £130m every year by updating old energy systems with battery storage, onsite low-carbon generation and energy efficiency measures.
  
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• London Mayor extends group-buying solar scheme

  02-07-2018 13:05
  Sadiq Khan has expanded a scheme for London residents and businesses to buy high-quality solar panels after a first phase saw nearly 4,000 registrations.
  
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• UK heatwave helps solar power to record weekly highs

  02-07-2018 12:45 via theguardian.com
  Hot weather saw solar briefly take over from gas as the number one energy sourceBritain’s heatwave has helped break several solar power-generation records, and over the weekend the renewable energy source briefly eclipsed gas power stations as the UK’s top source of electricity.While new solar installations have virtually flatlined over the past year, a run of hot, largely cloudless days has seen a series of highs for power generation by the sector. Continue reading...
  
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• 'The ocean is my home - and it's being trashed'

  02-07-2018 12:36 via bbc.co.uk
  Turning the 4,000 live-aboard yachts around the world into a research fleet.
  
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• Ocean crowd

  02-07-2018 12:36 via bbc.co.uk
  Turning the 4,000 live-aboard yachts around the world into a research fleet.
  
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• Republicans try to save their deteriorating party with another push for a carbon tax | Dana Nuccitelli

  02-07-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Like opposing civil rights and gay marriage, climate denial will drive voters away from the GOPThe Republican Party is rotting away. The problem is that GOP policies just aren’t popular. Most Americans unsurprisingly oppose climate denial, tax cuts for the wealthy, and putting children (including toddlers) in concentration camps, for example.The Republican Party has thus far managed to continue winning elections by creating “a coalition between racists and plutocrats,” as Paul
  
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• Renewables hit record generation share high in UK

  02-07-2018 12:00
  Renewable energy's share of electricity generation hit a new record high in the first quarter of this year despite increased demand caused by the "Beast from the East" cold snap, according to new government figures.
  
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• Oxford and Cambridge could become the UK's first true cycling cities

  02-07-2018 11:13 via theguardian.com
  Both cities are seeking ways to transport expanding populations without impacting their historic centres, yet the simplest solution is staring them in the faceSometimes politics really does overlook the obvious, and there’s a fine example just now in those two great centres of clear thinking and clogged traffic, Oxford and Cambridge. Here is the problem. The country wants, and badly needs, to build on these cities’ success in tech, bioscience and other industries: 129,000 new jobs an
  
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• Taking place on WEDNESDAY: edie's webinar on electric vehicles

  02-07-2018 10:01
  Individuals and organisations looking to reap the maximum benefits from the electric vehicle transition are encouraged to tune into a free webinar this week, featuring expert insight from UPS, the Cross River Partnership and UK Power Network Services.
  
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• The treasure hunters on a deadly quest for an eccentric's $2m bounty

  02-07-2018 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Four people have died seeking a bounty hidden in the Rockies, with only a riddle as a guide. As the casualties mount, the millionaire who buried the treasure insists it’s not a hoaxSacha Johnston was inching along a dirt road in a narrow canyon in northern New Mexico. “Just guide me,” Johnston said to her search partner, Cory Napier, who directed Johnston and her white Toyota 4Runner. “This road can be brutal.” The pair had come to this starkly beautiful place, at t
  
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• Matt Canavan's optimistic coal forecast contradicts his own department

  02-07-2018 09:53 via theguardian.com
  Minister says ‘we’d be mad not to’ mine Galilee basin, despite report showing steep price drop from 2020A senior federal minister has claimed new coal export figures strengthen the investment case for Adani’s Carmichael coalmine and the development of Queensland’s Galilee basin, but a report from his own department appears to show the opposite.The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science released a report on Monday that included projections for global commodit
  
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• Tent spiders weave a spectacular display – video

  02-07-2018 08:31 via theguardian.com
  The intricately-woven webs of a mass colony of tent spiders create aneye-catching display in a nature reserve at Port Macquarie, New SouthWales, Australia.  Australian Museum arachnologist Graham Milledge told the ABC the webs were built over wet grassland and low-lying vegetation. 'At the top of the cone in the web is where the spider has its little retreat, that's where it sits waiting for prey and often there's a lot of detritus and leaves there to camouflage the spider'Continue reading.
  
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• How researchers can help the world face up to its 'wicked' problems

  02-07-2018 08:30 via theguardian.com
  We’re running out of time to deal with issues like climate change. Researchers must work at a local level to effect changeSometimes, the sheer weight of the social, economic and environmental “wicked problems” in our world can leave us feeling frozen, unable to take any kind of action. But these are exactly the kinds of problems that researchers everywhere can help with – especially if we use methods that include and draw attention to the communities most affected by them
  
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• New Zealand the most perilous place for seabirds due to plastic pollution

  02-07-2018 07:40 via theguardian.com
  ‘Seabird capital of the world’ is home to dozens of endemic species, which are particularly vulnerable to plasticsSeabirds are more at risk of dying due to plastic in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world, new research presented to parliament has shown.New Zealand is considered “the seabird capital of the world”, according to the country’s Department of Conservation, with the northern royal albatross raising their chicks on the Otago Peninsula, unique species
  
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• Scottish Power owner: ditch 'moonshot' green technologies

  02-07-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Head of Spanish Iberdrola welcomes UK’s scrapping of £1.3bn Swansea tidal project The boss of one of the world’s biggest energy companies has said governments should abandon expensive “moonshot” green technologies – such as the £1.3bn Swansea tidal project, axed last week – in favour of wind and solar. Ignacio S Galan, chair of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, which controls Scottish Power in the UK, said the decision on Swansea must see the end of
  
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• Country diary: swanning around the river bank

  02-07-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Otley, Wharfedale: A pair of mute swans build their riverside nest in an exposed spot, untroubled by their urban neighbours
  The distance to the end of my garden from the back of my “new” house (I moved in eight months ago) is about the length of a cricket pitch. Beyond it there is a lush line of trees and an intractable tangle of bramble, bindweed and balsam, which drops steeply down to the banks of the River Wharfe.Along this stretch of the Wharfe there is a corridor in which trees,
  
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• The politics of quitting plastic: is it only a lifestyle option for the lucky few? | Stephanie Convery

  02-07-2018 06:08 via theguardian.com
  Reducing plastics when shopping for food, toiletries and travel products should be easy – so why is it so difficult? A few months ago, my partner and I went snorkelling off the coast of Indonesia. We dove off tiny deserted islands and swam in the deep with giant manta rays, but what I remember most vividly about that trip was not the stunning coral or dazzling array of colourful, curious fish; it was the sheer amount of garbage in the water. Shopping bags, plastic cups, toothpaste tubes, o
  
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• Dry weather boosts UK's most endangered butterfly

  02-07-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  High brown fritillary population rises due to harsh winter and sunny springThe combination of a harsh winter and sunny May and June has given the population of the UK’s most endangered butterfly, the high brown fritillary, a welcome boost.Volunteers have been counting rare butterflies in a wooded valley on the Devon coast, which has been the focus of a project to encourage species such as the high brown fritillary.Continue reading...
  
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