Environment news

• Hailstorm kills two animals and injures 14 people at a zoo in Colorado

  07-08-2018 23:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Two animals died and 14 people were injured after hailstones reported to be the size of baseballs hit a zoo in Colorado.
  
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• Birdwatch: the purple heron – a rare visitor – kept itself well hidden

  07-08-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  The bird was one of five heron species that day, including the normally shy bitternLooking like a snake with wings, the purple heron (Ardea purpurea) was surprisingly well hidden, perched in the dense foliage near the top of a tree. I was watching this scarce visitor to southern Britain from the hide at Noah’s Lake, on the Avalon Marshes, Somerset. For me, this serpentine bird was a very welcome sight, as it was only the second I had ever seen in the UK, and the first in Somerset – h
  
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• Summer's extreme weather captured

  07-08-2018 20:51 via bbc.co.uk
  The last month has seen deadly wildfires, monsoon rains and droughts hit several countries.
  
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• Victoria toughens negotiating stance on national energy guarantee

  07-08-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  ACT offers compromise on emissions target in bid to end standoff with Turnbull governmentThe Australian Capital Territory has floated a compromise on setting an emissions reduction target in an attempt to break the current impasse on the national energy guarantee, as Victoria toughens its negotiating stance.The Andrews government, after a cabinet deliberation on Monday, has now set four concrete conditions it says it wants met, which if insisted upon, could torpedo the national energy guarantee.
  
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• UK should support mini nuclear reactor projects, says official review

  07-08-2018 18:41 via theguardian.com
  Subsidies similar to those for offshore wind could help meet emissions targets and boost exports, experts sayBritain should offer developers of mini nuclear plants subsidies similar to those made available to the offshore wind industry, an independent review commissioned by the government has recommended.Britain needs to invest in new power-generating capacity to replace ageing coal and nuclear plants that are due to close in the 2020s, and is seeking low-carbon options to help meet its emission
  
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• Lawyers say Gove proposals for Brexit environmental watchdog are useless

  07-08-2018 18:07 via theguardian.com
  Bar Council say planned new UK watchdog lacks teeth, as it will not be able to take the government to court
  A new watchdog supposed to safeguard the UK’s environment after Brexit will lack the legal “teeth” necessary to hold the government to account, the country’s top lawyers have said.Under current proposals, the body to be charged with overseeing the UK’s environmental protections would not be able to take the government to court, a key power under the current le
  
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• Don’t despair – climate change catastrophe can still be averted | Simon Lewis

  07-08-2018 14:11 via theguardian.com
  The future looks fiery and dangerous, according to new reports. But political will and grassroots engagement can change thisThis is the summer when, for many, climate change got real. The future looks fiery and dangerous. Hot on the heels of Trump, fake news and the parlous state of the Brexit negotiations, despair is in the air. Now a new scientific report makes the case that even fairly modest future carbon dioxide emissions could set off a cascade of catastrophe, with melting permafrost relea
  
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• Lidl launches 'Too Good to Waste' fruit and veg discount box to cut back on food waste

  07-08-2018 13:32
  In a bid to cut back on food waste, Lidl UK has launched a trial run selling boxes of fruit and vegetables no longer considered at their best at a discount price.
  
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• Big leap in corporate clean energy purchases in 2018, research shows

  07-08-2018 12:14
  The business community has set a new record for levels of procurement in clean energy in 2018, research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) has revealed.
  
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• Apple partners with Etsy, Swiss Re and Akamai on renewables projects

  07-08-2018 12:14
  Apple is collaborating with cloud services firm Akamai, reinsurer Swiss Re and e-commerce brand Etsy to develop two new wind and solar farms that will enable the companies to increase access to renewable energy in the eastern US.
  
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• Caribbean states beg Trump to grasp climate change threat: 'War has come to us'

  07-08-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  As warming temperatures caused by climate change is strengthening hurricanes, leaders in the region plead with Trump to rejoin the Paris climate deal Caribbean states and territories have rounded on the Trump administration for dismantling the US’s response to climate change, warning that greenhouse gas emissions must be sharply cut to avoid hurricanes and sea level rise threatening the future of their island idylls.
  The onset of this year’s hurricane season has seen leaders in the r
  
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• Tesco becomes first supermarket to stock cans of water

  07-08-2018 11:06
  In the latest move to cut back on the number of plastic products entering circulation, Tesco has become the first supermarket to stock and offer cans of water.
  
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• Mendocino Complex fire: drone video shows scale of California's biggest ever blaze

  07-08-2018 09:59 via theguardian.com
  The Mendocino Complex blaze has become California's biggest ever fire. As of Monday afternoon, the fire has destroyed a total of 87 residences and 82 other structures, with news agencies reporting seven deaths so far across California.  At 443.4 square miles it has surpassed the scale of the Thomas fire, which broke out in 2017.Mendocino Complex fire becomes California's biggest ever Continue reading...
  
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• Mendocino Complex fire: aerial footage shows scale of California's biggest ever blaze – video report

  07-08-2018 09:59 via theguardian.com
  The Mendocino Complex blaze has become California's biggest ever fire. By Monday afternoon the fire had destroyed 87 residences and 82 other structures, and news agencies reported seven deaths so far across California.  Covering an area of 443.4 sq miles, the fire has surpassed the scale of the Thomas fire, which broke out in 2017Mendocino Complex fire becomes California's biggest ever Continue reading...
  
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• Domino-effect of climate events could move Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state

  07-08-2018 08:21 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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• Race to contain destructive march of armyworm as pest spreads to India

  07-08-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Voracious caterpillar that cost Africa billions of pounds in lost crops now threatens food security across Asia, scientists warnA crop-chomping caterpillar that has devastated food stocks across Africa has now arrived in southern India, and scientists warn the insect could spread throughout Asia to become a major threat to global food security.The voracious fall armyworm, which was first spotted on the African continent two years ago and has since cost billions of pounds in crop losses, is best
  
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• Mendocino Complex wildfire becomes California's biggest ever

  07-08-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Thousands of firefighters battle blaze as it destroys 87 homes and 82 other structures, and forces evacuationsPlumes of smoke towered over flame-engulfed mountains in northern California on Monday evening as thousands of firefighters grappled with the largest wildfire in state history. At a community hall in a small farming community 121 miles north-east of San Francisco, Renato Lira, an American Red Cross disaster services worker, looked through photos on his phone of the fire he had just drive
  
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• Mendocino Complex fire becomes California's biggest ever

  07-08-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Deadly blaze destroys 87 homes and 82 other structures as emergency services battle to bring it under controlPlumes of smoke towered over flame-engulfed mountains in northern California on Monday as firefighters grappled with the largest wildfire in state history. At a community hall in a small farming community 121 miles north-east of San Francisco, Renato Lira, an American Red Cross disaster services worker, looked through photos on his phone of the fire he had just driven through to set up an
  
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• Artist's paper cup pyramid highlights waste problem

  07-08-2018 07:43 via bbc.co.uk
  After walking past bags of rubbish in Oxford, artist Simon Mandarino decided to illustrate the issue in a rather more visual way.
  
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• Country diary: in the wink of a butterfly's wings

  07-08-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Claxton, Norfolk: The red admirals bring a touch of colour and life’s heroic fortitude to our dust-coloured lawnBy happy accident our neighbour’s lavender buddleia leans across the fence and almost touches our buddleia’s blooms of imperial purple. As they sway in the breeze, the two perform a chromatic dance that enhances the maypole swirl of our gardens’ shared butterfly population. It’s primarily the plain sailing of large whites from one to the other but there is
  
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• UK would run out of food a year from now with no-deal Brexit, NFU warns

  07-08-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Farmers’ union says supply would dry up by August 2019 if Britain had to be self-sufficientBritain would run out of food on this date next year if it cannot continue to easily import from the EU and elsewhere after Brexit, the National Farmers’ Union has warned.
  Minette Batters, the NFU president, urged the government to put food security at the top of the political agenda after the prospect of a no-deal Brexit was talked up this week.Continue reading...
  
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• UK could run out of food a year from now with no-deal Brexit, NFU warns

  07-08-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Farmers’ union says supplies would only last until August next year if Britain had to be self-sufficientBritain would run out of food on this date next year if it cannot continue to easily import from the EU and elsewhere after Brexit, the National Farmers’ Union has warned.
  Minette Batters, the NFU president, urged the government to put food security at the top of the political agenda after the prospect of a no-deal Brexit was talked up this week. Continue reading...
  
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