Environment news

• Don't blame wildfires on climate change – it's environmentalists' fault, says Zinke

  13-08-2018 22:34 via theguardian.com
  US interior secretary Ryan Zinke blames environmentalists for the devastation in California and calls for an increase in loggingThe US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has blamed environmentalists for California’s ferocious wildfires and claimed, contrary to scientific research, that climate change had “nothing to do” with them. Instead, he said the fires were worsened because of limits on logging.“America is better than letting these radical groups control the dialogue ab
  
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• Dirty coal: health fears of a town covered in dust from disused power station

  13-08-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Senate inquiry to visit Port Augusta to investigate mistakes made after the closure of the Northern power plant For the residents living near the site of South Australia’s demolished coal-fired power plant, the coming months could be their third straight summer of dust. A flawed rehabilitation of an ash dam has led to potentially hazardous particles being blown across Port Augusta and its 14,000 residents for the last two years.Continue reading...
  
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• Blow for coal power as EU carbon emissions price hits 10-year high

  13-08-2018 17:58 via theguardian.com
  But pollution payments may need to triple to trigger switch to renewables, say analystsThe amount polluters pay for emitting carbon in the EU has hit a 10-year high, in a blow for coal power station owners and a boost for renewable energy.The price of carbon in the bloc’s emissions trading scheme reached €18 (£16) per tonne on Monday, triple the level a year ago. Continue reading...
  
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• Blow for coal companies as EU price on carbon emissions hits ten-year high

  13-08-2018 17:58 via theguardian.com
  Pollution cost set to hurt profit margins but may need to triple to trigger switch to renewables, say analystsThe amount polluters pay for emitting carbon in the EU has hit a 10-year high, in a blow for coal power station owners and a boost for renewable energy.The price of carbon in the bloc’s emissions trading scheme reached €18 (£16) per tonne on Monday, triple the level a year ago. Continue reading...
  
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• Winged reptiles thrived before dinosaurs

  13-08-2018 17:20 via bbc.co.uk
  A newly discovered species of pterosaur that lived about 210 million years ago has been found in the Utah desert.
  
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• Tax havens shielding companies responsible for deforestation and overfishing

  13-08-2018 17:00 via theguardian.com
  70% of vessels implicated in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing are registered in tax havens, report findsMoney channelled through secretive tax havens has been used to fuel deforestation in the Amazon and illegal fishing around the world, racking up a heavy environmental toll but leaving few ways for businesses to be held to account.Billions of pounds worth of finance has travelled through countries internationally recognised as tax havens, and has been traced by researchers to activiti
  
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• Tax haven link to rainforest destruction and illegal fishing

  13-08-2018 17:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Deforestation of the Amazon and illegal fishing have both been linked to tax havens according to a new study.
  
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• Ball Corporation commits to science-based targets tackling supply chain emissions

  13-08-2018 15:18
  Global packaging firm Ball Corporation has set new science-based targets within the company's direct operations and across its supply chain to reduce its emissions intensity by 58% by 2030.
  
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• Europe's first bioenergy carbon capture project to assist drinks sector

  13-08-2018 15:02
  Energy group Drax has announced that it is in talks with the British Beer & Pub Association to explore whether the CO2 captured during its bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project could be used to tackle CO2 shortages in the beverage industry.
  
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• Gatwick Airport launches incentivised ride-sharing scheme for staff

  13-08-2018 14:13
  Gatwick Airport has launched an incentivised ride-sharing scheme for staff, allowing employees to track the emissions they reduce by carpooling and rewarding those who share journeys most often.
  
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• Lidl to install Ireland's largest network of supermarket-based EV chargers

  13-08-2018 13:09
  Budget supermarket chain Lidl has announced that it will install electric vehicle (EV) chargers at 20 of its stores across Ireland over the next six months, in a bid to host the nation's largest supermarket-based network of chargepoints.
  
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• Government rejects calls to extend smart meter rollout

  13-08-2018 12:49
  The Government has spoken out against pushing back the rollout for smart meters by three years, following calls from Citizens Advice.
  
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• Trump reignited his war with California, but his Tweet got burned | Dana Nuccitelli

  13-08-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Trump is trying to accelerate the key contributor to California’s expanding wildfires – climate change
  Last week, 18 wildfires were burning at once in California, including its largest in history, destroying over 1,100 homes and forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. The smoke made the air in the state’s Central Valley unhealthy to breathe for a record 15 consecutive days, as I can personally attest.Fun fact: there are currently no clouds at all over NorCal. The op
  
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• Labor's Gai Brodtmann to stand down at next election – as it happened

  13-08-2018 09:37 via theguardian.com
  Josh Frydenberg gives timeline of Great Barrier Reef grant approval and defends ‘due diligence’ claim. All the day’s events, live 8.37am BST And we will leave today there, because there’s a long week ahead of us and while it is only Monday, I feel as if I have lived a million of them. Tomorrow it’s all Neg all the time, as Josh Frydenberg and Malcolm Turnbull take on the backbench and the Nationals to keep their energy policy alive. 8.30am BST Andrew Bartlett will b
  
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• Coalition says ABC and SBS efficiency review will ‘assist’ broadcasters – politics live

  13-08-2018 09:19 via theguardian.com
  Josh Frydenberg gives timeline of Great Barrier Reef grant approval and defends ‘due diligence’ claim. All the day’s events, live 8.18am BST From her statement:I have advised Bill Shorten I will not be nominating for preselection for the seat of Bean. 8.12am BST A little more from Lee Rhiannon’s speech:“...Dealing with the Labor Party has presented a dilemma for the Left in this country for over a century. Here we have a social democratic party that has too often em
  
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• Barnaby Joyce suggests people who shop at Kmart don't care about climate change

  13-08-2018 08:18 via theguardian.com
  Former deputy PM says ‘people in the Kmart, people in the local pub’ don’t care about Paris agreement Shoppers have turned on the former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce after he suggested that “people in the local Kmart” did not care about climate change.The backbencher made the claim, a new spin on the wisdom of the pub test, at a media conference in Canberra on energy policy and the drought. Continue reading...
  
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• Drought in Australia seen from above – in pictures

  13-08-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The state of New South Wales is 100% in drought. Farmers are struggling with failing crops, low water supply and diminishing livestock feed. From ground level, the earth looks a brown dustbowl, but from the air it is transformed into an artwork of colour and texture. Photographer David Gray has captured the scenes using a drone Continue reading...
  
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• Josh Frydenberg gives timeline of Great Barrier Reef grant approval – politics live

  13-08-2018 07:34 via theguardian.com
  Energy minister defends ‘due diligence’ claim after Labor attacks Coalition over company tax cuts. All the day’s events, live 6.33am BST Mitch Fifield’s office has just sent this out:The Turnbull Government has commenced an efficiency review of the public broadcasters which was announced in the May Budget. 6.32am BST And for anyone who was wondering what Malcolm Turnbull was referring to, when he mentioned Bill Shorten not saying what he thinks when he on mic, it’s
  
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• Halfway to boiling: the city at 50C

  13-08-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  It is the temperature at which human cells start to cook, animals suffer and air conditioners overload power grids. Once an urban anomaly, 50C is fast becoming realityImagine a city at 50C (122F). The pavements are empty, the parks quiet, entire neighbourhoods appear uninhabited. Nobody with a choice ventures outside during daylight hours. Only at night do the denizens emerge, HG Wells-style, into the streets – though, in temperatures that high, even darkness no longer provides relief. Unc
  
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• AI identifies heat-resistant coral reefs in Indonesia

  13-08-2018 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Coral Triangle could be key to conserving the world’s reefs as Indonesia corals survive worst coral bleaching event in history.A recent scientific survey off the coast of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia suggests that some shallow water corals may be less vulnerable to global warming than previously thought. Between 2014 and 2017, the world’s reefs endured the worst coral bleaching event in history, as the cyclical El Niño climate event combined with anthropogenic warming to cause
  
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• Hippo bite kills Taiwan tourist in Kenya

  13-08-2018 05:50 via bbc.co.uk
  The animal turned on the Taiwanese man after he got too close with his camera at Lake Naivasha.
  
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• Greens plan to move censure motion against David Leyonhjelm – politics live

  13-08-2018 02:44 via theguardian.com
  Senate opens by addressing Leyonhjelm’s comments to Sarah Hanson-Young, while Newspoll delivers Turnbull more bad news. All the day’s events, live 1.44am BST Keep in mind this is a draft - so it may not be word perfect. But here is what Scott Ryan had to say on the comments David Leyonhjelm made against Sarah Hanson-Young before the Senate broke for the winter recess:On Thursday, 28 June, an exchange between two senators occurred in the chamber and became the subject of substantial p
  
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• Orca mother finally abandons dead calf she carried for more than two weeks

  13-08-2018 02:32 via theguardian.com
  Researchers say endangered killer whale who lives off the coast of Seattle is back to feeding and frolicking with her podResearchers say an endangered killer whale thatcarried her dead calf on her head for more than two weeks has finally abandoned the calf’s body and is back to feeding and frolicking with her pod.The Center for Whale Research in Washington state says it watched the orca, known as J35, chase a school of salmon in Haro Strait west of San Juan Island, between the US mainland
  
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• A blueprint for business leadership: edie launches Sustainable Development Goals report

  13-08-2018 02:01
  Sustainability and CSR professionals looking to embed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within their organisation's business strategy now have access to a comprehensive new report which breaks down everything there is to know about the global Goals.
  
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• US mid-term elections: Truth-seeking scientists run for office

  13-08-2018 01:55 via bbc.co.uk
  "Scientists are not natural politicians... but they solve problems," says one of the record number running in the US mid-term elections.
  
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• Coal back on the agenda as energy guarantee deadline looms – politics live

  13-08-2018 01:12 via theguardian.com
  The MPs are back and energy and tax continue to dominate the Coalition party room, while Newspoll delivers Turnbull more bad news. All the day’s events, live 12.11am BST Mike Bowers was out and about and caught Craig Kelly in all his red parka glory.To be fair it is still fecking freezing here.12.07am BST Emma Husar will not be in parliament this week.As recommended by the review, the Lindsay MP will be taking part in a return-to-work plan with the Department of Finance’s ministerial
  
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• Sinking city

  13-08-2018 01:10 via bbc.co.uk
  With frequent floods, sinking markets and engulfed homes, by 2050 parts of Jakarta will be underwater.
  
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• Jakarta, the fastest-sinking city in the world

  13-08-2018 01:10 via bbc.co.uk
  With frequent floods, sinking markets and engulfed homes, by 2050 parts of Jakarta will be underwater.
  
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