Environment news

• ‘Not happy’: Australia must act on climate, says former Kiribati leader

  19-10-2018 23:46 via theguardian.com
  Anote Tong, allegedly insulted by Australian minister, says inaction means Canberra risks losing its status in Pacific regionAnote Tong has had quite a week. The former president of Kiribati has been in Australia to advocate for more robust action on climate change, which threatens to wipe out his Pacific home within a matter of decades as sea levels rise.
  But on Wednesday he got caught up in controversy when reports emerged that Australia’s environment minister, Melissa Price, allegedly t
  
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• Benny the beluga whale forces firework display postponement

  19-10-2018 23:18 via theguardian.com
  Council in Kent told that disturbing the whale would breach wildlife lawIt has attracted plenty of spectators during its stay. But Benny the lost beluga whale who took up residence in the Thames last month may end up leaving the crowds disappointed after it was announced that a fireworks display would have to be postponed to protect him.About 15,000 people were expected to gather for the annual bonfire night celebrations in Gravesend, Kent, on 2 November to see a display set off from a barge on
  
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• Sustainable Business Covered podcast: The Great Green GB Week relay

  19-10-2018 18:25
  It's episode 50 of the Sustainable Business Covered podcast, and the edie team undergo a week-long podcasting relay, interviewing an array of sustainability experts from the likes of Adnams, BT, Good Energy, PwC and WWF as part of the UK Government's Green GB Week.
  
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• The Guardian view on vanishing insects: a silent threat | Editorial

  19-10-2018 18:18 via theguardian.com
  The astonishing global collapse in their numbers is a danger to almost every other speciesOne of the classic moments in the Simpsons comes when the venal TV anchorman Kent Brockman sees on his screen an ant crawling across a lens and assumes at once that this is not a negligible terrestrial arthropod but a giant alien descending from space that will become one of “our new insect overlords”, a species to which he instantly and publicly pledges allegiance. The joke hinges on the idea t
  
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• Scottish Power to invest in solar energy for the first time

  19-10-2018 17:19 via theguardian.com
  Big six firm to focus exclusively on renewables, adding solar power to its windfarmsScottish Power, one of Britain’s biggest energy companies, has said it will invest in solar power for the first time as part of its move away from fossil fuels.The big six firm sold off its last gas-fired power stations to Drax Group this week to focus exclusively on renewables, which today consists of onshore and offshore windfarms. Continue reading...
  
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• UK is endangering people's health by denying their right to clean air, says UN

  19-10-2018 16:17 via theguardian.com
  World body urges Conservative government to ‘step up and show leadership’ on the air pollution crisisThe UK government is putting the health of millions of its citizens at risk by failing to tackle the country’s air pollution crisis, according the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights and the environment.David Boyd said people’s right to breathe clean air was being violated in the UK and warned the crisis was responsible for up to 50,000 deaths – and devasta
  
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• Plastic recycling firms accused of abusing market

  19-10-2018 14:13 via bbc.co.uk
  The Environment Agency is probing claims exporters are abusing the recycled plastics market.
  
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• Politicians say nothing, but US farmers are increasingly terrified by it – climate change

  19-10-2018 14:00 via theguardian.com
  Research forecasts Iowa corn yields could drop in half within the next half-century thanks to extreme weather – yet it’s not part of the political conversationFarmers around here are itching to go after that amber wave of soya beans, but there was that 5in rain a couple of weeks ago and then a 7in rain, and it drives even the retired guys batty.Those beans aren’t worth much at the elevator thanks to a Trump trade war with China, but they’re worth even less getting wet fee
  
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• Mission to Mercury: BepiColombo spacecraft ready for launch

  19-10-2018 12:04 via bbc.co.uk
  Europe and Japan await the launch of their joint mission to the little world nearest the Sun.
  
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• Could a 'no deal' Brexit be a 'golden opportunity' for the UK's green economy?

  19-10-2018 11:52
  In light of the Government's latest wave of 'no deal' Brexit planning updates, resource management experts have claimed that the scenario could force the UK to manage its waste more efficiently.
  
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• 'Bad news' and 'despair': Global carbon emissions to hit new record in 2018, IEA says

  19-10-2018 10:58
  Global carbon emissions will rise to a new record level in 2018, making the chances of reaching a target to keep temperature increases to 1.5 or 2°C "weaker and weaker every year, every month," the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.
  
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• A14 road workers find woolly mammoth bones

  19-10-2018 10:49 via bbc.co.uk
  The bones, discovered on the site of an ancient river, are thought to be at least 130,000 years old.
  
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• Seven years of protest: inside the fracking resistance – photo essay

  19-10-2018 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Photographer Christopher Thomond has been documenting protests over fracking in the north of England since 2011After years of protest, hyperbole and delays, fracking has returned to the UK. After seeing off a last-minute legal challenge, shale gas firm Cuadrilla began fracking near Blackpool on Monday.The drive to extract gas from the rocks beneath the UK has catalysed the environmental movement in recent years, uniting concerned local residents and climate campaigners. Continue reading...
  
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• UK plastics recycling industry under investigation for fraud and corruption

  19-10-2018 08:37 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Watchdog examining claims plastic waste is not being recycled but left to leak into rivers and oceans
  The plastics recycling industry is facing an investigation into suspected widespread abuse and fraud within the export system amid warnings the world is about to close the door on UK packaging waste, the Guardian has learned.The Environment Agency (EA) has set up a team of investigators, including three retired police officers, in an attempt to deal with complaints that organised crim
  
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• Why is this African village letting mosquitoes in?

  19-10-2018 08:29 via bbc.co.uk
  The genetically modified insects are part of a project which aims to tackle malaria in Africa.
  
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• Wentworth becomes test bed for how federal election will treat climate change

  19-10-2018 08:22 via theguardian.com
  Coalition of green groups has been working hard to ensure voters realise they have a chance to give Liberals a wake-up callYoung people in colourful T-shirts bearing slogans of Stop Adani, and members of Renew and other green groups, have been fanning out across Sydney’s eastern suburbs to knock on as many doors as possible – not for any particular candidate, but for a specific cause.Unlike most general elections or byelections where economic management, tax, health and educatio
  
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• Mercury: Learning from the strangest planet

  19-10-2018 08:16 via bbc.co.uk
  The first European mission to explore Mercury will begin Saturday: What could it teach us?
  
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• BepiColombo: Mercury space mission to help us understand Earth

  19-10-2018 08:16 via bbc.co.uk
  BepiColombo mission could shed light on space weather and history of our planet
  
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• The Highway Code review is good news for cyclists but should just be the start

  19-10-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Close passing and dooring are serious concerns but there is more to be done to make our streets safer and cleaner, from funding boosts to road planningThe announcement of a Highway Code review for walking and cycling is a forward step for active travel and road safety. It may not be the millions of pounds of investment needed, but it’s a start.The Department for Transport (DfT) review will cover issues such as how to safely overtake cyclists, guidance on preventing car-dooring of cyclists,
  
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• Magical mystery tour: a road trip through Mexico

  19-10-2018 07:30 via theguardian.com
  Kicking off at a raucous Day of the Dead party, this odyssey takes in indigenous culture rarely seen by outsiders, with plenty of music and laughs along the way
  I’m lying on the grass in the churchyard in Huaquechula, a small town in the state of Puebla, central Mexico. I open my eyes and look up. A man dressed in eagle feathers is standing on top of a 30-metre telegraph pole banging a small drum, and four other men are climbing up towards him. When the four reach the top, they attach rope
  
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• Country diary: mudflats as a magnet for wetland birds

  19-10-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Langstone Harbour, Hampshire: These newly arrived migrants had joined a post-breeding congregation of 20 mute swans to forage in the shallows for green algae and eelgrassAs I sat on the concrete jetty with the late afternoon sun warming my face and bare arms, it felt as though winter was weeks away, but the presence of a raft of several hundred ducks in the bay suggested otherwise.Langstone harbour’s intertidal mudflats are a magnet for wetland birds and these newly arrived migrants had jo
  
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• Jurassic-era piranha is world's earliest flesh-eating fish

  19-10-2018 05:08 via bbc.co.uk
  A 150-million-year-old, sharp-toothed fossil is believed to be the world's oldest piranha-like specimen.
  
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• BMW's closed-loop batteries and AI-powered beehives: The best innovations for Green GB Week

  19-10-2018 02:13
  A number of eye-catching and potentially transformational innovations have emerged that could help businesses and nations accelerate the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy. Here, edie rounds-up six of the best.
  
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• BEIS Committee: Ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2032, not 2040

  19-10-2018 02:01
  MPs sitting on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee have urged the Government to bring its 2040 ban for new petrol and diesel car sales forward to 2032 - in light of the recent findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
  
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• New Forest brothers show off UK's biggest ever pumpkin

  19-10-2018 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  Twin brothers have been showing off the biggest pumpkin ever to have been grown indoors in the UK.
  
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