Environment news

• Drowning in Plastic review – a rallying cry, but is it too late?

  01-10-2018 23:02 via theguardian.com
  Wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin investigates the scale of the plastic crisis in the ocean and what we are doing about itFour hundred miles off the coast of Australia lies remote, pristine Lord Howe island: home to the largest colony of flesh-footed shearwaters on earth and a plastic-pollution horror story of 2018 proportions. The well-being of seabirds is a key indicator of the state of our blue planet and flesh-footed shearwaters eat more plastic relative to their size than any other marine creat
  
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• Weatherwatch: ants use ingenious ways to escape flooding

  01-10-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  From building nests with sealed air pockets to going rafting and ‘communal peeing’, ants have devised many tacticsMany people say that ants can forecast rain, building their nests higher or using different nest materials, even though there is not a shred of evidence that they can actually predict any rain.What is certain is that many ants in flood-prone areas use ingenious ways of coping with far too much water. Some build walls of earth and twigs around their nests to prevent floodi
  
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• Victoria's renewable energy boom set to create thousands of jobs

  01-10-2018 22:11 via theguardian.com
  Green Energy Markets predicts more than 6,000 annual jobs will be created but urges federal policy interventionThe renewable energy construction boom in Victoria is on track to create more than 6,000 annual jobs, according to a new analysis.As of August 2018, large-scale wind and solar projects under construction in Victoria had created 5,169 job years of employment – meaning one person working full time for one year – overtaking Queensland with 5,156, according to an analysis by Gre
  
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• Supreme court rejects California billionaire's 'private beach' case

  01-10-2018 21:14 via theguardian.com
  Vinod Khosla bought $32.5m property south of San Francisco and cut off public access to popular surf spotBeach lovers were celebrating Monday after the US supreme court declined to hear a case brought by the billionaire Vinod Khosla that threatened the public’s right to access beaches across California. Related: 'Privatizing the coast': are wealthy Californians seizing public beaches?Continue reading...
  
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• Value of Australian coal exports tipped to decline sharply over next 18 months

  01-10-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Thermal coal prices forecast to drop 25% and metallurgical coal prices 23% as value of iron ore exports also fallsThe value of Australia’s coal exports is forecast to decline sharply over the next 18 months as thermal coal prices drop 25% and metallurgical coal prices fall 23%.The decline in the spot price of both products will see their combined export value fall from $60.8bn in 2018-19 to $49.9bn in 2019-20, a deterioration of 18%. Continue reading...
  
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• Australia's emissions data would shame the Coalition, if such a thing were possible | Greg Jericho

  01-10-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  The government consistently buries the quarterly figures, and no wonderLate on Friday, under the cover of the release of the first interim report from the Hayne royal commission into the financial sector and the day before a weekend of AFL and NRL grand finals, the government released the latest quarterly data showing greenhouse gas emissions had once again risen.You can call this government many things – a bunch of dolts deluded into believing climate change is a global conspiracy, a bunc
  
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• Government unveils new £15m scheme to tackle retail food waste

  01-10-2018 18:49
  The UK Government has today (1 October) announced that it will spend £15m on a new initiative aimed at redistributing almost £1bn worth of food waste from supermarkets, other retailers and manufacturers.
  
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• Brexit countdown: How the green economy could fare in each possible deal scenario

  01-10-2018 18:28
  With Brexit negotiations hurtling towards an uncertain outcome, and many questions still unanswered, edie investigates how the UK's green agenda could be affected in each of the three most likely scenarios.
  
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• Cern scientist Alessandro Strumia suspended after comments

  01-10-2018 18:25 via bbc.co.uk
  Prof Alessandro Strumia, of Pisa University, had said "physics was invented and built by men".
  
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• In numbers: the UK public's attitudes towards recycling

  01-10-2018 17:56
  Last September, consultancy Britain Thinks surveyed more than 2,000 UK adults on attitudes across a spectrum of questions relating to packaging, recycling and the circular economy. With the survey results released on Friday (28 September), edie rounds-up the key findings.
  
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• German minister backs plan to cut down forest to build coal mine

  01-10-2018 17:45 via theguardian.com
  Thomas Bareiß says use of polluting fuel at RWE plant is needed to keep the lights onControversial plans to chop down a German forest to build a vast coal mine should proceed because Germany needs the polluting fuel to keep the lights on, according to the country’s energy minister.Dozens of treehouses built and occupied by campaigners for years have been recently cleared by police to make way for plans by energy firm RWE, which owns Hambach forest near Cologne, to expand its nearby o
  
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• German energy secretary backs forest clearance to build coal mine

  01-10-2018 17:45 via theguardian.com
  Thomas Bareiß says use of polluting fuel at RWE plant is needed to keep the lights onControversial plans to chop down a German forest to build a vast coal mine should proceed because Germany needs the polluting fuel to keep the lights on, according to the chief of the country’s state secretary for energy.Dozens of treehouses built and occupied by campaigners for years have been recently cleared by police to make way for plans by energy firm RWE, which owns Hambach forest near Cologne
  
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• Tsunami puzzle

  01-10-2018 17:11 via bbc.co.uk
  Researchers are trying to establish why Friday's quake generated such big waves.
  
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• H&M accused of failing to ensure living wage for supply chain workers

  01-10-2018 15:05
  Fashion giant H&M has been accused of failing to fulfil a commitment to pay all garment workers enough to keep them above the poverty line, a week after claiming that almost one-million employees are covered by its "fair living wage" approach.
  
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• London slides down rankings for global green finance leaders

  01-10-2018 13:27
  London has dropped from first to third place in a global ranking of the world's "greenest" financial centres, with ties to "legacy assets" focusing on "non-green" financial offerings impacting its score.
  
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• Aldi continues phase-out of non-recyclable plastics

  01-10-2018 12:42
  Discount supermarket Aldi is switching a range of its cooked meat from non-recyclable packaging to clear, recyclable alternatives in a move that is set to save more than 1,000 tonnes of plastic annually.
  
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• New study finds incredibly high carbon pollution costs – especially for the US and India | Dana Nuccitelli

  01-10-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  As a wealthy, warm country, the US would benefit from implementing a carbon tax to slow global warming
  The social cost of carbon is a measure of the economic damages caused (via climate change) by each ton of carbon pollution that we produce today.  It’s difficult to estimate because of physical, economic, and ethical uncertainties.  For example, it’s difficult to predict exactly when various climate tipping points will be triggered, how much their damages will cost, and th
  
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• The speed of #MeToo gives me hope – we can still stop climate change | Andrew Simms

  01-10-2018 11:00 via theguardian.com
  These days new social norms can be swift and profound. It could be our saving graceAfter smoking and drink-driving, could climate change provide the next big behaviour-change challenge? The latest science tells us that nothing short of rapid, transformative change in our infrastructure and behaviour can prevent the loss of the climate we depend on – yet the message is only now being officially endorsed at the highest scientific level, because the implications are terrifying for today&rsquo
  
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• Cern scientist: 'Physics built by men - not by invitation'

  01-10-2018 10:50 via bbc.co.uk
  Cern removes "highly offensive" slides from website from a talk on women in particle physics
  
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• 'We've bred them to their limit': death rates surge for female pigs in the US

  01-10-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  With sows producing 23 piglets a year on average, intensive farming is called into question over rise in animals suffering prolapseDeath rates for female pigs in the US are rising fast, sending alarm bells ringing throughout the farming industry.The mortality rate rose from 5.8% to 10.2% on farms owning more than 125 sows between 2013-2016, according to one organisation that collects data across 800 companies. Continue reading...
  
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• Activists call for halt to 'nuclear mud' dumping off Wales

  01-10-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Campaigners say sediment has not been tested properly and may do ‘irreversible harm’
  An eclectic group of activists including scientists, surfers and a member of the Welsh band Super Furry Animals is attempting to halt the dumping of “nuclear mud” excavated as part of the vast Hinkley Point C construction project.The activists are appearing in court in Cardiff on Tuesday to try to obtain an injunction to stop 300,000 tonnes of sediment from the power station site in Somer
  
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• Which cities will sink into the sea first? Maybe the ones you expect | Mark Miodownik

  01-10-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The Earth isn’t solid – which makes it hard to predict how the submerging of our coastlines will unfoldBetter scientific understanding of global warming makes the discussion about its geopolitical consequences increasingly urgent. Put simply, there are going to be winners and losers: hotter places and colder places; wetter places and drier places; and, yes, places that disappear under the sea. But the reality is a bit more complicated. In particular, are sea levels going up or down?
  
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• Which cities will sink into the sea first? Maybe not the ones you expect | Mark Miodownik

  01-10-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  The Earth isn’t solid – which makes it hard to predict how the submerging of our coastlines will unfoldBetter scientific understanding of global warming makes the discussion about its geopolitical consequences increasingly urgent. Put simply, there are going to be winners and losers: hotter places and colder places; wetter places and drier places; and, yes, places that disappear under the sea. But the reality is a bit more complicated. In particular, are sea levels going up or down?
  
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• Country diary: cave secrets of lost charismatic carnivores

  01-10-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Kinsey Cave, Yorkshire Dales: Bones of brown bear and lynx found here have rewritten the histories of both speciesI walk over the exposed hillside above Giggleswick Scar and push past the elder crowding the entrance to Kinsey cave. The dripping limestone grotto, like many of Craven’s karst caves, has been a time capsule, trapping evidence of the human and natural past in sediment and protecting it from the passage of glaciers. It is an unassuming space, but one that reverberates with signi
  
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• Row over Moon film's flag moment

  01-10-2018 03:46 via bbc.co.uk
  Not everyone is happy with a missing detail in a new film about the 1969 Moon landing.
  
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• IPCC: Climate scientists consider 'life changing' report

  01-10-2018 02:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists meet in Korea to discuss a report aimed at keeping global temperature rise under 1.5C this century.
  
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