Environment news

• Hayabusa 2: Japan probe to send lander to asteroid

  02-10-2018 18:56 via bbc.co.uk
  Japan's space agency (Jaxa) is about to send a 10kg lander to the surface of an asteroid.
  
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• Embodied carbon: Should 'net-zero' buildings require carbon-neutral construction?

  02-10-2018 18:43
  EXCLUSIVE: Amid calls for ministers to implement policies that ensure all new buildings are built to carbon-neutral standards by 2030, key construction industry stakeholders are beginning to ask whether the definition of "net-zero" should cover embodied carbon as well as operational emissions.
  
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• Why have so many deep water whales washed ashore in Scotland?

  02-10-2018 18:03 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists are investigating why around 70 deep water whales have washed up on Scottish and Irish beaches since the beginning of August.
  
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• Delays to energy efficient goods will cost EU consumers 'billions' in lost savings

  02-10-2018 16:53 via theguardian.com
  New eco-designs for products such as TVs and fridges are also crucial to Europe meeting its climate targets, say expertsNew energy efficient eco-designs for 15 products including fridges, TVs and dishwashers have been delayed, EU diplomats say, even though experts consider them “crucial” to meeting Europe’s Paris climate pledge. The delays are also expected to mean consumers will miss out on lower energy bills.The design revamps would have saved 62m tonnes of CO2 emissions &nda
  
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• The Trump administration knows the planet is going to boil. It doesn't care | Bill McKibben

  02-10-2018 16:02 via theguardian.com
  Trump’s team used last week to sneak in disastrous, linked policies on climate change and child refugee camps
  In the cloud of toxic dust thrown up by the Kavanaugh hearings last week, two new Trump initiatives slipped by with less notice than they deserve. Both are ugly, stupid – and they are linked, though in ways not immediately apparent.In the first, the administration provided the rationale for scrapping President Obama’s automobile mileage standards: because Trump’s
  
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• Shell approves $12bn liquefied natural gas project in Canada

  02-10-2018 15:10 via theguardian.com
  Scheme will send supercooled gas to Asia as countries switch over from coalShell has approved a $12bn (£9.3bn) investment in a mega energy project to send supercooled gas from Canada to China and other Asian countries as they turn from coal to gas.The scheme will be Canada’s biggest ever infrastructure project and is the world’s first major liquefied natural gas project to be given the go-ahead in five years. Shell has a 40% stake in the $31bn Canada LNG joint venture, along wi
  
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• Why Co-op hasn't signed up to the UK Plastics Pact

  02-10-2018 14:45
  EXCLUSIVE: The Co-op is one of the two major supermarkets yet to commit to WRAP's collaborative agreement to tackle single-use plastics, but the company's environment manager Iain Ferguson believes that an "enterprising" approach to innovation will enable the retailer to rethink approaches to packaging.
  
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• CitiPark discounts parking costs in exchange for plastic bottles

  02-10-2018 14:43
  Car park operator CitiPark has announced that it will trial a reverse vending system in its flagship facility in Leeds, offering customers discounted parking rates for bringing in plastic bottles.
  
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• Footage shows Indonesian earthquake causing soil liquefaction – video

  02-10-2018 14:39 via theguardian.com
  Liquefaction has caused buildings to collapse in the city of Palu after last Friday's earthquake in Indonesia. Liquefaction is when the earth takes on characteristics of a liquid after a quake. So far the death toll has exceeded 1,200 Continue reading...
  
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• Ikea says goodbye to plastic straws with display at London's Design Museum

  02-10-2018 14:10 via theguardian.com
  ‘Last Straw’ installation aims to raise awareness of plastic waste as the firm bans single-use straws from UK and Irish storesIkea today symbolically unveiled its last single-use plastic straw in a display at London’s Design Museum, after it stopped serving or selling the items in any of its UK and Ireland stores, restaurants and bistros this week.The so-called Last Straw installation will be on show to the public until Saturday and aims to inspire consumers to collectively tak
  
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• Welsh leaders urged to halt 'nuclear mud' dumping off Cardiff

  02-10-2018 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Sediment from Hinkley Point C construction site is being disposed of at Cardiff GroundsPressure is increasing on the Labour-led Welsh government to halt the dumping of “nuclear mud” in the sea close to Cardiff after a campaign by an eclectic group of scientists, surfers and a pop star.A motion calling on the government to suspend the licence allowing mud excavated from the construction site of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset to be disposed of just off the Welsh
  
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• Hinkley Point C 'nuclear mud' case dropped after debate secured

  02-10-2018 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Welsh assembly to examine concerns over dumping of sediment at Cardiff GroundsThe Welsh assembly is to debate the dumping of “nuclear mud” in the sea close to Cardiff after an eclectic group of scientists, surfers and a pop star threatened legal action over the practice.Cian Ciarán, the keyboard player from Super Furry Animals, had been due in court on Tuesday to argue in favour of an injunction to halt the disposal of mud excavated from the construction site of the Hinkley Po
  
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• London Mayor urged to eliminate single-use plastic packaging from capital

  02-10-2018 13:28
  Members of the Environment Committee have urged London Mayor Sadiq Khan to sign the capital up to WRAP's UK Plastics Pact, amid growing public concerns around plastic pollution.
  
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• Report: Global offshore wind industry to 'be worth £30bn per year by 2030'

  02-10-2018 12:37
  British companies are among the most likely to reap the rewards from the growth of the global offshore wind sector, which is set to be worth more than £30bn annually by 2030.
  
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• First woman Physics Nobel winner in 55 years

  02-10-2018 11:57 via bbc.co.uk
  The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to a woman for only the third time since the award began.
  
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• Currys PC World pioneers home collection of used batteries

  02-10-2018 11:48
  Currys PC World is set to start collecting end-of-life batteries from customers' homes when it delivers new appliances, as part of a campaign to stop Brits from hoarding used batteries.
  
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• Currys PC World to pioneer home collection of used batteries

  02-10-2018 11:39
  Currys PC World is set to start collecting end-of-life batteries from customers' homes when it delivers new appliances, as part of a campaign to stop Brits from hoarding used batteries.
  
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• Save us the smugness over 2018's heatwaves, environmentalists | Matt Hern and Am Johal

  02-10-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In this historically precarious moment, we need something more fundamental than climate strategies built on shame and castigationThere was a barely stifled schadenfreudian glee echoing across the liberal press through this burning hot summer. Environmentalists could scarcely disguise their we-told-you-so smirks as one suffocating heatwave after another rolled over the globe, wildfires savaged landscapes from Siberia to California and broken temperature records kept piling up.But yearning for cat
  
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• Save us the smugness over 2018's heatwaves, environmentalists

  02-10-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In this historically precarious moment, we need something more fundamental than climate strategies built on shame and castigationThere was a barely stifled schadenfreudian glee echoing across the liberal press through this burning hot summer. Environmentalists could scarcely disguise their we-told-you-so smirks as one suffocating heatwave after another rolled over the globe, wildfires savaged landscapes from Siberia to California and broken temperature records kept piling up.But yearning for cat
  
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• Country diary: a close encounter with a badger

  02-10-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Aigas, Highlands: The boulder-like creature snouts for food and carries on with its routine unaware of the watchers nearbyBarely had we let the sediment of evening settle before a badger entered stage right. It trundled to the light and its brindle-haired body was so dome-shaped that it gave the impression not so much of Britain’s largest terrestrial predator (after ourselves) as of a boulder moving.Like stone it also seemed rooted, certain of its place and of its unfolding routine –
  
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• What does 1.5C mean in a warming world?

  02-10-2018 02:02 via bbc.co.uk
  1.5C has become the new "safe" upper-limit for global warming - but whatever happened to the two-degree target?
  
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• Plastics Watch: Could seaweed replace plastic packaging?

  02-10-2018 01:34 via bbc.co.uk
  One Indonesian inventor has found a unique solution to the problem of plastic food packaging.
  
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