Environment news

• Fracking at Lancashire site paused after seismic event detected

  23-10-2018 23:50 via theguardian.com
  Magnitude 0.4 tremor follows several others recorded since Cuadrilla restarted drillingFracking operations in Lancashire have been shut down after seismic activity was detected. The move came a little more than a week after the process was restarted in the UK for the first time since it was banned in 2011.Cuadrilla Resources, which is carrying out the operations at its Preston New Road site, confirmed it paused work early on Tuesday as a precaution because of the microseismic event, which was me
  
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• Specieswatch: how woodlice are an early warning system for a damp problem

  23-10-2018 22:30 via theguardian.com
  Woodlice are crustaceans, relatives of the shrimp, that have adapted to life on land – but they still prefer damp conditionsThe common rough woodlouse Porcellio scaber is one of the five most numerous of 35 species of woodlice that are native to Britain, although there are others that arrived with imported plants and live mostly in greenhouses. Woodlice are remarkable in that they are not insects but crustaceans with 14 legs and an outer shell – their closest relatives being shrimps
  
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• Is socialism the answer to the climate catastrophe? | Jeff Sparrow

  23-10-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Our leaders privilege GDP over the environment because the economy must expand year after year – or else the world tips into crisis
  A spectre (or, if you prefer the earlier translation, a “frightful hobgoblin”) is haunting Europe – and, indeed, much of the world.This new, socialistic bogey has been shaking its chains at pollsters for some years now. Continue reading...
  
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• 'Investors are mostly concerned about political risks': energy minister Angus Taylor – full interview

  23-10-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  As the Coalition announces new measures to reduce power bills, Taylor talks to political editor Katharine MurphyInterview with the energy minister Angus Taylor and Guardian Australia political editor Katharine Murphy. The discussion follows government announcements on measures to reduce power prices, including a “last resort” divestiture power to break up power companies, and mechanisms to boost investment in new electricity generation.I’ll get on to today’s announcements
  
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• Green GB Week: a UK policy wishlist to drive clean growth action

  23-10-2018 17:57
  With the Government launching the nation's first-ever Green GB Week last week, dozens of sustainability experts met throughout the week to discuss the nation's clean growth agenda. Here, edie rounds up ten of their top green policy recommendations for the Government to place the UK on the road to a low-carbon economy.
  
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• Nasa 'fixes' Hubble malfunction

  23-10-2018 17:27 via bbc.co.uk
  Nasa believes it has fixed a malfunction with the Hubble telescope which threatened to limit the orbiting observatory's performance.
  
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• Green GB Week: a policy wishlist to drive clean growth action

  23-10-2018 17:12
  With the Government launching the nation's first-ever Green GB Week last week, dozens of sustainability experts met throughout the week to discuss the nation's clean growth agenda. Here, edie rounds up ten of their top green policy recommendations for the Government to place the UK on the road to a low-carbon economy.
  
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• Plastic protesters to buffalo racing: Tuesday's photo highlights

  23-10-2018 16:20 via theguardian.com
  Our picture editors round up their favourite photos from the past 24 hours Continue reading...
  
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• Nasa photographs rectangular iceberg

  23-10-2018 14:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Nasa has released a striking photo of a rectangular iceberg floating in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica.
  
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• Shipwreck found in Black Sea is 'world's oldest intact'

  23-10-2018 14:03 via bbc.co.uk
  A Greek merchant ship dating back more than 2,400 years is found almost perfectly preserved.
  
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• Uber to introduce clean air fee to all London rides

  23-10-2018 13:34 via theguardian.com
  Ride-hailing app to charge extra 15p per mile to help drivers pay for electric carsUber will charge its customers in London an extra 15p per mile on every trip to help its drivers buy electric cars.The ride-hailing app hopes to create a £200m fund from the levy to encourage almost half of its 45,000 drivers to use fully electric vehicles by 2021. The firm hopes its London fleet will be fully electric by 2025. Continue reading...
  
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• UK mayors lobby for £1.5bn funding to tackle Britain's air pollution

  23-10-2018 13:24
  A group of 16 mayors and city leaders have called on the UK Government to set aside an extra £1.5bn of investment to boost its existing Clean Air Fund, ahead of next week's Budget announcement.
  
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• Even our own bodies now contain plastic waste. It’s time to get drastic | Gaby Hinsliff

  23-10-2018 12:43 via theguardian.com
  Banning straws and cotton buds isn’t going to cut it. It won’t be easy, but our over-reliance on the stuff must endWe are what we eat, and what we eat reveals something about what we are in return. So it shouldn’t be all that surprising that humans are now apparently eating plastic, given what we mostly are is thoughtless enough to have littered the planet with the stuff. A small trial at the Medical University of Vienna found tiny shreds of it in the digestive systems of peopl
  
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• World's pension funds vulnerable to climate risks, study reveals

  23-10-2018 12:36
  87% of assets managed by the world's 100 largest public pension funds are yet to undergo a formal climate risk assessment, according to research published on Tuesday (23 October), with only 15% of them adopting a coal exclusion policy.
  
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• UN pledges $1bn investment to drive climate action in developing nations

  23-10-2018 12:28
  Members of the UN's Green Climate Fund (GCF) have this week approved more than $1bn of funding for 19 projects supporting climate action in developing countries.
  
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• HP and Ikea join commitment to create global supply chain for ocean-bound plastics

  23-10-2018 12:26
  HP and Ikea have joined a business consortium committed to incorporating ocean-bound plastics in new packaging and product materials by developing the first global supply chain for plastics that are seeping into the oceans.
  
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• A sea change: how one small island showed us how to save our oceans

  23-10-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  In just 10 years, the Isle of Man has rid its beaches of plastic and earned Unesco status as a world leader in ocean protection. So how did it do it?Standing on a windswept beach on the north-west coast of the Isle of Man, Bill Dale looked out on to plastic bottles, cartons and packaging forming a thick carpet covering the shingle. It was 2007, the global plastic binge was already well under way, but the millions of tonnes of waste seeping into the oceans as a consequence had not reached the pub
  
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• Costa and Premier Inn unveil plan to phase-out plastic straws

  23-10-2018 11:28
  Hospitality giant Whitbread has announced that it will begin removing plastic straws from its Costa Coffee stores and Premier Inn hotels from November 2018.
  
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• We need a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – and we need it now | Andrew Simms and Peter Newell

  23-10-2018 11:13 via theguardian.com
  Climate breakdown is an imminent threat to humanity. But an international treaty could avert calamityHow did government respond to the recent scientific conclusion that only “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” can deliver the globally agreed target for stopping climate breakdown? In the UK, fracking for fossil fuels was given the green light, plans were announced for a huge new road in the south-east, incentives for electric vehicles withered, th
  
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• Scott Morrison needs to realise Liberals are prepared to lose the election over climate change | Oliver Yates

  23-10-2018 08:01 via theguardian.com
  After Wentworth the government should know how passionate Liberal party members are about the environmentThe Wentworth byelection result demonstrates Liberal voter support at the next election should not be taken for granted.Many Liberal voters don’t share the government’s woefully immoral position on climate change or the way that its policies seem to be for sale. Continue reading...
  
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• 'No questions, no excuses': the squad enforcing Mumbai's ban on plastic

  23-10-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Shopkeepers and vendors fear a hefty fine from inspectors who are tasked with keeping the Indian city free of plastic bagsAt 10am on a muggy October morning, Crawford Market, one of Mumbai’s oldest, is stirring into life.In a first floor office inside the complex, the feared “blue squad” has assembled, forming a semi-circle around their boss, Anand Shinde, who is pumping them up. At 10.30am, the phalanx, dressed in blue uniforms, hurries down the wooden staircase and hits the s
  
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• Government could support new coal power 'where it stacks up' – Morrison

  23-10-2018 06:31 via theguardian.com
  Prime minister announces plan to boost investment in new ‘reliable’ powerThe Morrison government has held out the prospect of government support for new coal-fired power stations “where they meet all the requirements” of yet-to-be determined mechanisms to boost investment in new electricity generation.Scott Morrison and the energy minister, Angus Taylor, on Tuesday flagged a range of policy interventions to boost investment in new “reliable” power generation,
  
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• Country diary: seals' woeful cries cut through the noise of the wind

  23-10-2018 06:30 via theguardian.com
  Rathlin Island, County Antrim: Seals gather at the toe of this boot-shaped island; at the top of the boot, fulmars hang in the air, almost within reach; to the west: 2,000 miles of oceanOn the map, Rathlin lies on the sea like a discarded boot. (If Italy is high-heeled and elegant, this version has a battered, medieval look.) The sea here is the Sea of Moyle, where, according to Irish mythology, the Children of Lir were banished for 300 years after being turned into swans by their stepmother.The
  
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• The Guardian Essential report, 23 October results

  23-10-2018 01:36 via theguardian.com
  This report summarises the results of a weekly poll conducted by Essential Research with data provided by Your Source. Some questions are repeated regularly (such as political preference and leadership approval), while others are unique to each week and reflect current media and social issues Continue reading...
  
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• A blueprint for business leadership: edie launches sustainable mobility report

  23-10-2018 00:24
  edie has today (22 October) launched a brand-new insight report which explores how UK businesses can take the lead on accelerating the transition to more sustainable forms of mobility.
  
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• Microplastics found in human stools for the first time

  23-10-2018 00:00 via theguardian.com
  Study suggests the tiny particles may be widespread in the human food chainMicroplastics have been found in human stools for the first time, according to a study suggesting the tiny particles may be widespread in the human food chain.The small study examined eight participants from Europe, Japan and Russia. All of their stool samples were found to contain microplastic particles. Continue reading...
  
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