Environment news

• Celebrating World Green Building Week: Live edie webinar TODAY AT 2PM

  26-09-2018 23:01
  Representatives from the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Landsec and EDF Energy will be discussing how businesses can make 'net-zero' buildings the new normal in a live edie webinar today (27 September) at 2PM.
  
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• Abandoning nuclear power plans 'would push up carbon emissions'

  26-09-2018 19:07 via theguardian.com
  Report due to be published on Thursday warns of ‘folly of technological tribalism’Abandoning the UK’s ambitions for a number of new nuclear power stations would cause carbon emissions to spike and push up energy costs, according to lobbyists led by a former Conservative MP.The New Nuclear Watch Institute warned against what it called the “folly of technological tribalism” of pursuing a future powered by renewables and gas-fired power stations, rather than any new nu
  
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• Blackpool activists jailed for anti-fracking protest

  26-09-2018 17:24 via theguardian.com
  Three protesters given prison sentences for blocking Cuadrilla lorry convoyThree environmental activists are believed to be the first people to be jailed for an anti-fracking protest in the UK.Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were sentenced to 16 months in prison and Richard Loizou, 31, to 15 months on Wednesday after being convicted of causing a public nuisance by a jury at Preston crown court in August. Another defendant, Julian Brock, 47, was given a 12-month suspended sente
  
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• I’m thinking of going vegan but I’m nervous about such a huge transition. Any advice?

  26-09-2018 16:45 via theguardian.com
  In this series Poppy Noor discusses an issue concerning how we can build happy, well-run communities. But what do you think? Send us your thoughts and responsesI’m thinking of going vegan for environmental reasons, but I have some concerns about it. Everyone says we need to cut out meat to save the planet, but on what scale? Industrial? Individual? Corporate?I guess for me the problem is that there are loads of unknowns about becoming vegan compared to, say, cutting out single-use plastics
  
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• Barratt smashes emissions target seven years early

  26-09-2018 16:45
  The UK's largest housebuilder has hit its carbon target seven years early, having seen its operational carbon emissions fall by 21% since 2015.
  
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• The jailing of fracking protesters tells us we are winning this fight | Caroline Lucas

  26-09-2018 16:41 via theguardian.com
  This draconian clampdown on peaceful protest reeks of desperation from the fracking industry and the governmentFracking protesters have been sent to prison for the first time. It reeks of desperation from the industry and a clampdown on the right to protest. In 2013 I was arrested in Balcombe, West Sussex, for peacefully blockading a fracking site in solidarity with the local community. The charges against me were dropped, but today, for the first time ever, a judge sent three protesters to pris
  
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• Climate disclosure enters 'mainstream', but better reporting required, warns TCFD

  26-09-2018 16:07
  More than 500 companies have expressed support for the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures' (TCFD) recommendations. However, many businesses are failing to translate climate impacts into business risk.
  
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• Beluga whale remains in Thames amid concerns for its safety

  26-09-2018 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Ecologists ask public to stay away as beluga is seen 25 miles east of London and 1,500 miles from its normal habitatExperts are monitoring a beluga whale in the Thames estuary for a second day as fears grow for its safety.The whale’s movements are being monitored by experts on a Port of London Authority patrol boat moored to a barge east of Gravesend. Continue reading...
  
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• New emissions tests push BMW into profit warning

  26-09-2018 14:43
  German high-end carmaker BMW said Tuesday (25 September) that new stricter emissions tests for cars as well as refits to older vehicles and global trade tensions would leave revenues and profits short of its full-year forecast.
  
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• Labour commits to 2050 net-zero emissions target, Corbyn vows green jobs 'revolution'

  26-09-2018 14:38
  Labour has committed itself to a net-zero target of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, as Jeremy Corbyn vows to "kickstart a green jobs revolution" in the UK.
  
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• Don't post crisp packets, Royal Mail begs anti-plastic protesters

  26-09-2018 13:59 via theguardian.com
  Firm wants #PacketInWalkers campaigners to use envelopes instead of posting used packets with label attachedA social media campaign asking crisp manufacturers to make their packaging recyclable has led to Royal Mail issuing a plea to members of the public to put crisp packets in an envelope before posting them.The #PacketInWalkers campaign was launched on 21 September, asking people to use “a pen, paper, and some sellotape” to send used Walkers’ crisp packets back to the Leices
  
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• Anti-fracking activists jailed for Blackpool Cuadrilla protest

  26-09-2018 13:48 via theguardian.com
  Three campaigners thought to be first to be jailed for UK environmental action since 1932Three anti-fracking activists are thought to have become the first environmental campaigners to be jailed for a protest in the UK since 1932.Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were sentenced to 16 months in prison and Richard Loizou, 31, to 15 months on Wednesday after being convicted of causing a public nuisance by a jury at Preston crown court in August. Another defendant, Julian Brock, 47,
  
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• World War II bombs 'felt in space'

  26-09-2018 13:43 via bbc.co.uk
  Bombs dropped in World War II were so strong they were felt in the Earth's upper atmosphere
  
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• Back from the brink: the global effort to save coral from climate change

  26-09-2018 12:30 via theguardian.com
  Underwater nurseries offer glimmer of hope for endangered ecosystems, encouraging growth of coral fragments on fibreglass structures anchored to the seabedAs an ocean early warning system, coral reefs have been sounding the alarm for years. They have been bleached white by marine heatwaves and killed off en masse by a combination of factors including pollution, overfishing, acidification and climate change.But now scientists in Florida, and other tropical locations worldwide, are attempting to s
  
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• Air pollution fears fuel fight against new London cruise ship terminal

  26-09-2018 12:30 via theguardian.com
  The River Thames has become a ‘wild west’ unbound by new laws to clean up the city’s roads, say campaignersA huge new cruise ship terminal planned for the River Thames would lead to a surge in dangerous levels of air pollution in the heart of the capital with unknown health consequences for hundreds of thousands of people, campaigners have warned.Under the proposals, which have been given planning permission, up to 55 giant cruise ships would dock in London every year. Each shi
  
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• Beluga whale spotted again in Thames amid concerns for its safety

  26-09-2018 12:20 via theguardian.com
  Footage shows whale feeding near Gravesend, as ecologists ask public to stay awayFresh sightings of a beluga whale in the Thames have been confirmed, amid growing concern about its safety.Unconfirmed video footage of the whale was posted just after 9.30am on Wednesday morning. The RSPCA cast doubt on the first of report, saying it was impossible to identify the creature from the footage. But later its acting chief inspector, Clare Dew, who is at the scene, confirmed subsequent sightings. “
  
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• FTSE 100 firms step up efforts to manage climate change risks

  26-09-2018 12:17
  A new report has highlighted a positive trend among FTSE 100 companies taking action to manage the risks and opportunities of climate change over the past 12 months.
  
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• The lonely Thames beluga whale is an anomaly – and an omen | Philip Hoare

  26-09-2018 12:07 via theguardian.com
  It seems apt this whale has appeared in the ominously named Gravesend. Throughout history belugas have been a portentYesterday’s report of a Arctic beluga whale in the Thames has an almost Shakespearean quality of something both rich and strange, sensational and fatal at the same time. She’s tragically in the wrong place; comparisons with the Thames whale of 2006 are all too obvious. Despite a million-pound rescue attempt, that northern bottlenose died of dehydration, unable to feed
  
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• New research shows the world’s ice is doing something not seen before | John Abraham

  26-09-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Do you know how an ice sheet can move? You’ll find out below.In this warming world, some parts of the planet are warming much faster than others.  The warming is causing large ice bodies to start to melt and move rapidly, in some cases sliding into the ocean.  This movement is the topic of a very new scientific study that was just published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.  The Arctic is warming much faster than other parts of the planet and the ice there
  
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• Di Natale says Greens will take hard line with a Shorten government on emissions

  26-09-2018 10:19 via theguardian.com
  Greens leader says party will pressure Labor ‘to be as ambitious as it possibly can be’ on emissions reductionRichard Di Natale has said that Bill Shorten will be the next prime minister and warned the Greens will use their mandate to pressure Labor “to be as ambitious as it possibly can be” on emissions reduction.The Greens leader made the comments at the National Press Club on Wednesday in a speech proposing a government-owned electricity retailer in a bid to save house
  
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• China coal power building boom sparks climate warning

  26-09-2018 08:05 via bbc.co.uk
  Concerns over CO2 emissions as development restarts at hundreds of coal-fired power stations in China.
  
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• Great Barrier Reef scientists told to focus on projects to make government look good

  26-09-2018 07:02 via theguardian.com
  Emails tabled in Senate inquiry recommended ‘trade-offs’ to Great Barrier Reef Foundation Great Barrier Reef scientists were told they would need to make “trade-offs” to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, including focusing on projects that would look good for the government and encourage more corporate donations, emails tabled in the Senate reveal.The documents, including cabinet briefing notes, contain significant new details about the workings of the foundation and the
  
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• While economic growth continues we’ll never kick our fossil fuels habit | George Monbiot

  26-09-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  There may be more bicycles but there will also be more planes. We’re still in denial about the scale of the threat to the planetWe’re getting there, aren’t we? We’re making the transition towards an all-electric future. We can now leave fossil fuels in the ground and thwart climate breakdown. Or so you might imagine, if you follow the technology news.So how come oil production, for the first time in history, is about to hit 100m barrels a day? How come the oil industry ex
  
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• Satellite images show 'runaway' expansion of coal power in China

  26-09-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Extra 259GW capacity from coal in pipeline despite Beijing’s restrictions on plantsChinese power plants run on coal, thought to have been cancelled because of government edicts, are still being built and are threatening to “seriously undermine” global climate goals, researchers have warned.Satellite photos taken in 2018 of locations in China reveal cooling towers and new buildings that were not present a year earlier at plants that were meant to stop operations or be postponed
  
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• Country diary: a butterfly living in the now of a golden moment

  26-09-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: A fleeting sunspot in fallen leaves under the shelter of trees lay within the speckled wood’s territory, which he alone defendedThe tattered pennant of a speckled wood butterfly remained still as the wind roared overhead. With bits of wing missing due to bird attacks or batterings from the weather, the butterfly had been beating the bounds of its own territory until the wind cut up rough.Speckled wood butterflies, Pararge aegeria tircis, have brown, leaf-like wing
  
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• The man who beat Monsanto: 'They have to pay for not being honest'

  26-09-2018 06:00 via theguardian.com
  A jury ruled the agrochemical company caused Dewayne Johnson’s cancer. He tells the Guardian he wants to use the victory to make a difference while he still canDewayne Johnson tries not to think about dying.Doctors have said the 46-year-old cancer patient could have months to live, but he doesn’t like to dwell on death. These days, he has an easy distraction – navigating the international attention on his life. Continue reading...
  
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• Slow-moving justice: tortoise recovered seven years after Perth zoo theft

  26-09-2018 04:15 via theguardian.com
  Discovery comes as zoo faces scrutiny after a meerkat was stolen, and later recoveredPolice in Western Australia have located a critically endangered tortoise that was stolen from Perth zoo seven years ago.The discovery comes as the zoo faces intense scrutiny of its security measures, after last week’s theft, and subsequent recovery, of a baby meerkat. Continue reading...
  
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• Mediterranean diet 'may help prevent depression'

  26-09-2018 02:33 via bbc.co.uk
  An expert urges more research to confirm a possible link between fruit, veg, nuts and grains and mood.
  
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• Europe's Ariane-5 rocket makes 100th flight

  26-09-2018 01:20 via bbc.co.uk
  Europe's workhorse rocket racks up its 100th launch as it battles stiff American competition.
  
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