Environment news

• EPA rolls back methane pollution rule despite harmful health impacts

  18-09-2018 23:39 via theguardian.com
  Advocates said retracting the regulation would cause more smog-forming pollution that can cause heart and lung illnessesThe Trump administration is rolling back Obama-era standards to limit planet-warming methane pollution from oil and gas operations on federal lands.Environmental advocates said retracting the regulation would contribute to global warming and cause more smog-forming pollution that can cause heart and lung illnesses. Continue reading...
  
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• Starvation fears after piglets stolen from London farm

  18-09-2018 21:55 via bbc.co.uk
  There are fears for the welfare of 11 tiny piglets stolen from a farm in London.
  
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• Energy minister's electorate backs higher emissions reduction target, poll shows

  18-09-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  ReachTel poll of Angus Taylor’s voters finds 42.3% want Australia to cut emissions more deeplyMore voters in the electorate of the new energy minister, Angus Taylor, support an emissions reduction target for electricity and a higher national target than the Paris commitment than oppose those positions.A ReachTel poll of 690 residents across the federal electorate of Hume, which reaches from Boorowa in the southern tablelands of New South Wales to Camden on Sydney’s southern fringe, w
  
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• The Guardian view on clean air zones: cities must be bold | Editorial

  18-09-2018 19:30 via theguardian.com
  As evidence about the harmful effects of pollution mounts, mayors need to take action to reduce emissions and improve healthThe slogan “Think global, act local”, popular among environmentalists since the 1970s, is apt when applied to the politics of air. While pollution by greenhouse gases, chiefly CO2, requires international action, some emissions can be tackled much closer to home. Evidence about the health impact of the gases and particles produced by road traffic, industry a
  
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• German carmakers face EU anti-trust inquiry over emissions

  18-09-2018 15:22 via theguardian.com
  BMW, Daimler, VW, Audi and Porsche suspected of colluding to limit clean technologyBrussels has launched an anti-trust investigation into whether BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche, known as the “circle of five”, colluded to limit the development of clean emission technology.The German car manufacturers are suspected of agreeing not to compete against each other in the roll-out of anti-pollution systems for petrol and diesel passenger cars. Continue reading...
  
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• Forced labour in Paraguay: the darkness at the bottom of the global supply chain

  18-09-2018 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Experts believe that action is urgently needed to expose horrifying labour conditions across Paraguay’s Chaco region“For me, there are two very important anthropological concepts,” says Patrick Friesen, speaking Spanish with a thick accent. He is a descendant of protestant Mennonites who left Europe to found agricultural colonies in the arid region of the Paraguayan Chaco; he is also the communication manager of Chortitzer, one of the three large Mennonite cooperatives that dom
  
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• Two directors quit key fracking firm amid 'Tory rebellion' claims

  18-09-2018 14:34 via theguardian.com
  Uncertainty around Third Energy’s North Yorkshire project blamed for resignationsThird Energy, one of the firms at the frontline of the UK’s fracking drive, has been hit by the departure of two of its directors due to delays over its flagship project in North Yorkshire. Campaigners said the resignations were a sign of a company “in meltdown”.The Barclays-backed company had looked likely to be the first shale explorer to frack in the UK for years, but its plans for the KM8
  
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• Data-driven 'Plastics Cloud' launched to combat plastics waste

  18-09-2018 12:57
  Software firm SAP UKI has unveiled plans to collect live data from supply chains as part of a "Plastics Cloud" pilot aimed at improving plastics purchasing and recycling.
  
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• UK energy managers 'unaware' of impacts of rising non-commodity costs

  18-09-2018 12:47
  More than half of senior UK energy professionals are "unaware or unsure" of the potential impacts which rising non-commodity costs will have on their firm, according to new Government figures.
  
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• Shell sets near-zero methane emissions target for 2025

  18-09-2018 12:12
  Oil and gas giant Shell has made a new commitment to reduce the methane emissions intensity of its operations to below 0.2% by 2025.
  
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• Ikea to use EVs for last-mile home deliveries in five cities by 2020

  18-09-2018 11:43
  Ikea has pledged to only use electric vehicles (EVs) for all its last-mile home deliveries in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Shanghai by 2020, after announcing a 2025 target of using zero-emission vehicles to make all of its last-mile deliveries worldwide last year.
  
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• Global Climate Action Summit: Lack of government climate ambition balanced by non-state action

  18-09-2018 11:43
  San Francisco's Global Climate Action Summit ended on 14 September with non-state actors sending a call to action to governments ahead of the crucial COP24 in December, while highlighting their pivotal role in reducing emissions and reaching climate targets.
  
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• Combined heat and power (CHP): edie launches free business guide

  18-09-2018 11:43
  Organisations looking to install combined heat & power (CHP) systems on their site now have access to an updated business guide which breaks down all of the key information required to implement the technology.
  
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• Elon Musk unveils first tourist for SpaceX 'Moon loop'

  18-09-2018 10:57 via bbc.co.uk
  The first private passenger to fly around the Moon with SpaceX will be a Japanese billionaire.
  
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• Gulf petrodollars are a destructive addiction – the UK must kick the habit | David Wearing

  18-09-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The flow of Gulf capital into Britain stifles the development of more sound economic policiesand keeps us too close to some of the world’s worst regimesThis month marks 10 years since the financial crisis turned into a full-blown crash, and 10 years since the purchase of Manchester City Football Club by the royal family of Abu Dhabi. What links the two is the flow of revenues generated by the sale of oil and gas (“petrodollars”) into Britain from the Gulf Arab monarchies &ndash
  
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• Coalition won't replace renewables target after it winds down in 2020

  18-09-2018 08:39 via theguardian.com
  ‘We will reach the 26% emission reduction target without additional intervention,’ minister saysThe energy minister, Angus Taylor, says the Morrison government will not be replacing the renewable energy target “with anything” after it winds down in 2020.Taylor confirmed there would be no policy to reduce emissions in the electricity sector during an answer to the Greens MP Adam Bandt in question time on Tuesday. Continue reading...
  
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• UK children inhaling toxic air on school run and in classroom

  18-09-2018 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Tiny particles of black carbon from car exhausts lodge themselves in children’s lungs and can enter the bloodstream and potentially the brain
  • ‘I was horrified that children are breathing air this dirty inside the school’Children in the UK are being forced to breathe dangerous levels of toxic air as they make their way to and from school – and even once they are inside their classrooms, according to new research.The findings from academics at Queen Mary University i
  
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• 'I was horrified that children are breathing air this dirty inside the school'

  18-09-2018 07:01 via theguardian.com
  Head of Holborn primary school shocked to learn air pollution in classrooms far exceeds World Health Organisation guidelinesChildren inhaling toxic air on school run and in classroomHeadteacher Gwen Lee had not expected the results to be good but had been unprepared for what the air pollution engineer found.Levels of dangerous particulate pollution exceeded WHO guidelines in every classroom of the school – and two were more than three times over the limit. Continue reading...
  
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• A giant crawling brain: the jaw-dropping world of termites

  18-09-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  At least half of termite studies used to be about how to kill them. But science is discovering their extraordinary usefulnessIn July 2008, I rented a small yellow car in Tucson, Arizona, and drove it south towards Tombstone. My passengers included an entomologist and two microbial geneticists, and I was following a white van with government plates carrying nine more geneticists. We also had 500 plastic bags, a vacuum flask of dry ice, and 350 cryogenic vials, each the si
  
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• Australia's rank on global development index hurt by climate change inaction

  18-09-2018 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Australia ranks 14 after New Zealand, with Scandinavian countries in top three spotsAustralia’s commitment to global development has improved over the past year, driven by strong trade, education and finance outreach to the developing world, but it has been criticised for its poor action on the environment and climate change.The Centre for Global Development annually ranks 27 wealthy countries on their commitment to development across the policy areas of aid, finance, technology, environme
  
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• Adani coalmine: full environmental statement not required to expand dam 450%

  18-09-2018 03:21 via theguardian.com
  Green groups say the federal government decision amounts to ‘preferential treatment’ The federal government has ruled the Indian mining company Adani does not have to complete a full environmental impact statement for its application to drastically expand a dam and build a pipeline for its Carmichael coalmine.The project, which Adani calls the north Galilee water scheme, would involve the construction of a 10 billion-litre dam. An existing dam has a capacity of 2.2bn litres.Adani als
  
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• Solar Orbiter: Spacecraft to leave UK bound for the Sun

  18-09-2018 03:19 via bbc.co.uk
  UK engineers finish building a satellite that will carry cameras closer to the Sun than ever before.
  
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• Number of dirty diesels on road still growing, report shows

  18-09-2018 00:01 via theguardian.com
  Three years after the Dieselgate scandal erupted, number of highly polluting diesel vehicles on Europe’s roads has risen to 43 millionThe number of dirty diesel vehicles pumping out toxic emissions on Europe’s streets is still rising three years after the Dieselgate scandal began, according to a new report. More than 7m such cars and vans remain on UK roads alone.There were 29m diesel vehicles whose emissions on the road were significantly higher than official laboratory-based EU lim
  
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