Environment news

• 'Big call': minister refuses to link drought to climate change on Q&A

  06-08-2018 23:21 via theguardian.com
  Agriculture minister David Littleproud tells ABC audience he doesn’t ‘give a rats’ whether climate change is man-madeThe agriculture minister says linking the drought affecting much of Australia to man-made climate change is a “big call” and he does not “give a rats if it’s man-made or not”.David Littleproud made the comment on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday, which was filmed in Lismore in the northern rivers region of New South Wales. H
  
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• Climate change: 'Hothouse Earth' risks even if CO₂ emissions slashed

  06-08-2018 21:07 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers warn that even limited climate warming could trigger conditions not seen in a million years.
  
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• Climate change: 'Hothouse Earth' risks even if CO2 emissions slashed

  06-08-2018 21:07 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers warn that even limited climate warming could trigger conditions not seen in a million years.
  
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• Engineers accused of botching £27m Blackpool sea wall

  06-08-2018 21:05 via theguardian.com
  Project already showing signs of deterioration months after it was officially completedA multimillion-pound flood defence project protecting thousands of homes has started to deteriorate just months after it was unveiled. Engineers from a construction company were on Monday accused by local councillors of botching the four-year scheme in Blackpool, which cost £27.1m.Continue reading...
  
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• Domino-effect of climate events could push Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state

  06-08-2018 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Leading scientists warn that passing such a point would make efforts to reduce emissions increasingly futile A domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas, shifting currents and dying forests could tilt the Earth into a “hothouse” state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be increasingly futile, a group of leading climate scientists has warned.This grim prospect is sketched out in a journal paper that considers the combined consequences of 10 climate change proce
  
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• Abbott policies reduced effectiveness of foreign aid to combat climate change

  06-08-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Government report says change in priorities from 2013 saw a loss of expertise and project oversightA decreased emphasis on climate change and cuts to the foreign aid budget under the Abbott government caused a loss of expertise, a lack of oversight and early closure of some projects, according to an internal government report.Two-thirds of selected projects by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade achieved a modest or significant impact on climate outcomes, the evaluation said.
  
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• Snakes on the streets of Britain, but why? – video

  06-08-2018 19:59 via theguardian.com
  Snakes have been spotted throughout the UK. Earlier this week, a boa constrictor was filmed on a high street in east London slowly devouring a pigeon. Elsewhere the creatures have been found in bathrooms and beds.Who let the snakes out – and what should you do if you find one in your bed? Continue reading...
  
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• Who let the snakes out – and what should you do if you find one in your bed?

  06-08-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Snakes have been spotted on pavements and in parks, and some are even slithering into houses. Is the heatwave causing a mass breakout?Dave Fawbert says he wasn’t alarmed when he came across a boa constrictor on a high street in east London after popping out to buy a loaf of bread. It wasn’t moving, but the head of a pigeon was disappearing within the snake’s coils. “If it had been slithering around, I’d be more freaked out because you don’t know what it’
  
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• World history seen via a shop window | Brief letters

  06-08-2018 18:10 via theguardian.com
  Apollo space missions | China’s emissions | Denis Healy sightings | Telephones | Identifying artFurther to Peter Avery’s letter about watching cricket outside a TV rental showroom (4 August), in the late 1960s I was an avid follower of the Apollo space missions. One day the BBC announced the next broadcast from the capsule was going to be the first in colour. We did not have a colour set, so I made sure I was in the shopping centre so I could watch it in a shop wi
  
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• Why the University of London is crowdsourcing a zero-carbon target

  06-08-2018 16:42
  EXCLUSIVE: The University of London is working on a full environmental strategy that will enable the campus to reach zero carbon emissions by 2036. To get there, it has called on leading universities to deliver a range of ideas and technologies as part of a "crowdsourcing" event.
  
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• US wildfires: smoke billows and we're stuck indoors – this is how we live now

  06-08-2018 14:58 via theguardian.com
  The pool is closed, the kids can’t play outside – we’re all trying to avoid harmful smoke from wildfires burning far awayLast week my kids went to a nature daycamp in Klamath Falls, Oregon, near the California border, where we live. It was meant to be a week of roaming the hills, learning about local species like fence lizards and sagebrush. Instead, they looked at pictures of these species while staying inside with all the windows firmly shut. Related: California's wildfires:
  
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• Smoked in: as wildfires rage across America's west, we're inside with the windows shut

  06-08-2018 14:33 via theguardian.com
  For a large group of westerners, the fires inflict a separate cost: high levels of wildfire smoke that’s bad for everyone’s healthLast week my kids went to a nature daycamp in Klamath Falls, Oregon, near the California border, where we live. It was meant to be a week of roaming the hills, learning about local species like fence lizards and sagebrush. Instead, they looked at pictures of these species while staying inside with all the windows firmly shut. Related: California's wildfire
  
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• It'll be toasty

  06-08-2018 14:25 via bbc.co.uk
  When the Bloodhound supersonic car attempts to break the land speed record, managing heat around the vehicle is going to be important.
  
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• Collection and content: How can councils address the 'smorgasbord' of plastics to boost recycling?

  06-08-2018 13:48
  Councils have urged manufacturers to scrap a "smorgasbord" of plastics used for food packaging in order to increase recycling rates, although the industry has suggested that the lack of consistency of council recycling collection systems also needs addressing.
  
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• If we value rural Britain, we can’t build houses all over it | Simon Jenkins

  06-08-2018 12:47 via theguardian.com
  The countryside should not be up for speculative land grab – we need clear rules about which areas are open for developmentGovernment housing policy has lost all contact with planning Britain’s countryside. This week the Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE) is up in arms over house-building in green belts, and over the lack of what it calls affordable housing. These are a distraction. It is planning as such that has collapsed.The CPRE is concerned that 8,000 houses w
  
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• The GOP and Big Oil can't escape blame for climate change | Dana Nuccitelli

  06-08-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  The New York Times magazine blames ‘human nature,’ but the true culprits have already been fingered
  Last week’s issue of the New York Times magazine was devoted to a single story by Nathaniel Rich that explored how close we came to an international climate agreement in 1989, and why we failed. The piece is worth reading – it’s a well-told, mostly accurate, and very informative story about a key decade in climate science and policy history. But sadly, it explicitly e
  
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• Veolia to recycle 120 million coffee cups in 2019

  06-08-2018 11:35
  Waste management firm Veolia has announced it will increase the number of coffee cups it collects for recycling annually by 300%, by working with retailers such as Costa, Starbucks and McDonald's on in-store collection services.
  
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• Maze of colour in a Surrey chalk pit - Country diary archive, 10 August, 1918

  06-08-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  10 August 1918 A marbled butterfly is on the ragwort, wild clematis trails down from an overhanging thorn, a finch settles on the marlSurrey
  Flowers are abundant on the scarred sides of huge chalk-pits, sometimes hundreds of feet high, hewed in past years. Purple and yellow grown above grey flints turn to a maze of colour when a summer mist comes from the south. Then the sun pierces through, and you see and hear bees along the snapdragons and on thistles. A marbled butterfly is on the ragwort, w
  
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• Rush to dam

  06-08-2018 03:13 via bbc.co.uk
  Developing economies around the world are investing in hydropower.
  
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• Farmers using medieval methods to combat rural crime

  06-08-2018 02:00 via theguardian.com
  Farmers put up earth banks and dry ditches to block criminals who use 4 x 4 vehicles to get on to farm landFarmers are resorting to medieval methods to combat rural crime which has risen to its highest level in four years, an increase being blamed on organised criminal gangs and policing cuts. Offences against farmers and other rural businesses cost an estimated £44.5m last year, an increase of 13.4% from 2016, according to insurer NFU (National Farmers Union) Mutual. Continue reading...
  
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• New green belt housing applications push total to a record 460,000

  06-08-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Developers made proposals for 35,000 homes in protected parts of England in 2017Applications to build an additional 35,000 homes on green belt land were submitted last year, taking the total number proposed for construction on protected land to a record 460,000. Continue reading...
  
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