Environment news

• Climate change poses threat to UK's historic churches, trust warns

  12-07-2018 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Strong winds, more frequent storms and arrival of termites to put towers and spires at risk The UK’s historic churches are at serious risk from the impact of climate change, including higher levels of rainfall and invasive pests such as termites, according to the National Churches Trust. Roofs, towers and spires are threatened by strong winds and more frequent storms.The trust saw a 26% year-on-year increase in applications for grants for urgent repairs, maintenance and development project
  
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• Recycling crisis: why don't we have a national container deposit scheme?

  12-07-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Difficult to coordinate, yes. But it could ameliorate Australia’s waste and recycling woesIn June, a wide-ranging Senate inquiry into the state of Australia’s recycling system recommended a national container deposit scheme (CDS) be rolled out across the country. Of all 18 inquiry recommendations, a national scheme is one that is at least part way there, all states except Tasmania and Victoria with an existing scheme or one soon to be implemented.Continue reading...
  
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• Greenpeace and GetUp launch campaign to kill national energy guarantee

  12-07-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Television ads in Victoria and Queensland aim to get state governments to veto Turnbull’s set piece policyThe Queensland and Victorian governments will be hit with a new television advertising campaign in an effort to persuade them to torpedo the national energy guarantee at a critical meeting in early August.The activist group GetUp has combined with Greenpeace to bankroll what it describes as hard-hitting television advertisements targeting the two Labor-held states ahead of a
  
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• A whale would have been a right catch for a Roman fisherman | Letters

  12-07-2018 18:58 via theguardian.com
  Far more likely the Romans merely exploited any dead whales found floating or cast ashore, suggests Pete Eiseman-RenyardThe researchers first quoted in your article (Romans had whale industry, research suggests, 11 July) have made a very bold extrapolation from very small evidence. I would agree with Dr Erica Rowan, cited towards the end of the piece, that one might expect documentary evidence if the Romans actually had a whaling industry. Far more likely they merely exploited any drif
  
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• Source of cosmic 'ghost' particle revealed

  12-07-2018 17:44 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers believe a galactic "monster" is a source of cosmic neutrinos detected on Earth.
  
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• Ireland becomes world's first country to divest from fossil fuels

  12-07-2018 17:12 via theguardian.com
  Bill passed by parliament means more than €300m shares in coal, oil, peat and gas will be sold ‘as soon as practicable’The Republic of Ireland will become the world’s first country to sell off its investments in fossil fuel companies, after a bill was passed with all-party support in the lower house of parliament.The state’s €8bn national investment fund will be required to sell all investments in coal, oil, gas and peat “as soon as is practicable”,
  
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• Whale killing: Iceland accused of slaughtering rare whale

  12-07-2018 17:09 via bbc.co.uk
  Campaigners say that what appears to be a rare blue whale has been killed by Icelandic whalers.
  
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• Brexit White Paper: Everything you need to know about the UK's environmental aspirations

  12-07-2018 16:36
  The Government has today (July 12) published its much-awaited Brexit White Paper, which includes a non-regression requirement to ensure environmental standards do not slip lower than existing European Union (EU) regulation.
  
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• Fahrenheit 100: could this be the summer Britain wakes up to climate change? | Michael McCarthy

  12-07-2018 15:54 via theguardian.com
  I hoped 2003’s record heatwave would make people more aware. Yet they promptly forgot all about itI don’t know anybody who remembers 10 August 2003 and its significance, although the date has never faded from my mind. That was Britain’s hottest ever day, the day the current British air temperature record was set: it leapt from the old record of 37.1C, set on 3 August 1990, to the new figure of 38.5C. Related: This heatwave is just the start. Britain has to adapt to climate chan
  
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• Swarms of moon jellyfish like 'oil slick' off Ceredigion coast

  12-07-2018 15:42 via bbc.co.uk
  Dolphin spotters on a boat trip were surrounded by thousands of jellyfish near New Quay harbour.
  
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• Can Norway help us solve the plastic crisis, one bottle at a time?

  12-07-2018 12:10 via theguardian.com
  A bottle deposit hub on the outskirts of Oslo has had a stream of high-level international visitors. Can its success be replicated worldwide?Tens of thousands of brightly coloured plastic drinks bottles tumble from the back of a truck on to a conveyor belt before disappearing slowly inside a warehouse on the outskirts of Oslo.As a workman picks up a few Coke bottles that have escaped, Kjell Olav Maldum looks on. “It is a system that works,” he says as another truck rumbles past. &ldq
  
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• Rising ocean waters from global warming could cost trillions of dollars | John Abraham

  12-07-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  We’ll need to mitigate and adapt to global warming to avoid massive costs from sea level rise
  Ocean waters are rising because of global warming. They are rising for two reasons. First, and perhaps most obvious, ice is melting. There is a tremendous amount of ice locked away in Greenland, Antarctica, and in glaciers. As the world warms, that ice melts and the liquid water flows to the oceans. The other reason why water is rising is that warmer water is less dense – it expands. This ex
  
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• Unilever and Sainsbury's among funders for Prince of Wales SDG programme

  12-07-2018 11:14
  More than a dozen big-name businesses, including Unilever, Asda and Sainsbury's, have teamed up to work on a Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) initiative to support progress towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  
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• In A&E I see children's terror as they choke from polluted air this summer

  12-07-2018 11:03 via theguardian.com
  The cocktail of pollution and pollen in London kills people. Politicians should spend a night on the wards to see the harmSummer nights are supposed to be quiet on the children’s unit in A&E. Kids are normally healthy during the warmer months: the risk of colds and flu is low, and their bodies are invigorated by sunshine and exercise. They might suffer the odd scrape or broken bone from playing outside, but nothing that would land them in hospital in the middle of the night.Not this su
  
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• Country diary: soft sounds of sparrow seduction

  12-07-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Sandy, Bedfordshire: The house sparrows are busy caring for their young, but can still find time to mate dozens of times a dayLolling in the shade under a hazel bush, I had become the inadvertent eavesdropper on a private conversation. Out of the canopy came a whispered “brrr” whirr of wings and then the soft sounds of sparrow seduction, a love song of tenderness that was scarcely imaginable from a bird known for its strident chirps.Gentle, soothing, piteous peeps drifted down, an in
  
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• Killing rats could save coral reefs

  12-07-2018 02:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Threatened reefs can be protected by eradicating destructive rats on tropical islands, scientists say.
  
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• Survey: Half of young people want electric cars

  12-07-2018 01:58 via bbc.co.uk
  Young drivers increasingly want to buy electric cars - but myths are still deterring older drivers, survey shows.
  
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• Using roads to make power and toilet paper

  12-07-2018 01:43 via bbc.co.uk
  Can we use roads to generate power, make toilet paper and help increase the bee population?
  
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• Earliest evidence of humans outside Africa

  12-07-2018 00:31 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists say they've probably found the earliest evidence of a human presence outside Africa.
  
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• UK accused of 'green Brexit hypocrisy' over regulation of suspected carcinogen

  12-07-2018 00:01 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: UK attempted to weaken new EU regulations of a lucrative whitening chemical, Ti02, found in cosmetics and sunscreensMichael Gove has been accused of “green Brexit hypocrisy” for trying to weaken regulation of a suspected carcinogen found in sun creams, paints and toothpastes, in a proposal seen by the Guardian.The European commission had proposed mandatory labelling and a cosmetics ban for titanium dioxide (TiO2) – a whitening chemical – after the European Chem
  
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