Environment news

• Nearly 30 whales stranded on remote Victorian beach

  27-11-2018 23:03
  Humpback whale and 27 pilot whales among those beached in Croajingolong national parkA humpback whale and 27 pilot whales have stranded themselves on a remote beach in a Victorian national park.Most of the beached animals have died, according to authorities. Continue reading...
  
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• Climate report Trump tried to bury: key findings No 2 – some action is far better than none

  27-11-2018 22:41
  According to the report, even limiting greenhouse gases would substantially reduce the risks of damages, lives lost and health consequencesKey findings No 1: air pollution killsThe Trump administration published a major report on climate change the day after Thanksgiving. We will explore the key findings each day this week.Donald Trump doesn’t believe his own government’s major report on climate change – which the administration tried to bury over the Thanksgiving break. It war
  
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• Supreme court rules against endangered dusky gopher frog

  27-11-2018 21:20
  Court ruled in favor of landowners seeking to limit power to designate private land as protected habitat for speciesThe US supreme court on Tuesday decided against the interests of a warty amphibian and handed a victory to a timber company and other landowners in the first major move on the environment from the bench this term.The court ruled in favor of the commercial interests seeking to limit the federal government’s power to designate private land as protected habitat for endangered sp
  
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• MPs criticise high street fashion's throwaway culture

  27-11-2018 20:47
  Retailers including Primark and Boohoo face questions over impact of fast fashionMajor high street names including Primark, Boohoo and Missguided have come under fire for fuelling a throwaway fast fashion culture that has been linked to the exploitation of low-paid workers in UK factories.Britons buy more new clothes than any other country in Europe and MPs are looking at the environmental and human cost of £2 and £200 T-shirts amid growing concerns the multibillion-pound fashion ind
  
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• Regenerating woodlands requires multiple approaches | Letters

  27-11-2018 18:15
  Beccy Speight of the Woodland Trust, John Peatfield and Mary Smith respond to Isabella Tree’s article about bringing back Britain’s wildwoodsKnepp Estate is a good example of natural regeneration, but Isabella Tree’s article (Bring back the wildwoods of Britain to fight climate change, 26 November) shows a lack of understanding regarding the Woodland Trust’s own approach. The northern forest will see the planting of 50m trees but not in one “enormous plantation&rdqu
  
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• Ways to make Bath breathe easier | Letters

  27-11-2018 18:09
  Readers offer their views on the city’s proposed clean air zone
  The proposed clean air zone for Bath places the financial burden of solving the pollution problem on individual motorists and businesses (Bath’s drivers choke on proposals for daily £9 pollution charge, 26 November). The problem has been known about for years but it is only now, with the threat of legal action, that the government and local authorities have been forced to act to solve the problem in the shortest po
  
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• As a warming world wreaks havoc, Trump wages war on climate science | John Podesta

  27-11-2018 17:52
  The US administration’s politicization of science has led to big budget cuts for data and analysis. Others must fill the gapThe evidence of climate change is all around us, from melting Alaskan permafrost to wildfires in Sweden, from the brutal European heatwave to the devastating 2017 and 2018 hurricane seasons, which have claimed thousands of lives and caused billions of dollars in damage in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and North Carolina. In recent weeks, the worst wildfires in Californi
  
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• Tell us: was 2018 the year you woke up to climate change?

  27-11-2018 16:34
  We’d like to know if you changed your opinion on climate change and whether there was a moment that convinced you of its impact
  This year has seen more than 200 natural disaster events take place across the world. In February, the Beast from the East swept across Europe bringing snow and strong winds causing the UK’s worst weather in years, and in November California experienced the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history.With a UN agency predicting a 75-80% chance of a clima
  
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• Climate change: CO2 emissions rising for first time in four years

  27-11-2018 16:06 via bbc.co.uk
  Global efforts to tackle climate are off track says the UN, as it sees a rise in CO2 after years of decline.
  
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• How ING achieved boardroom buy-in to launch its second green bond

  27-11-2018 16:05
  EXCLUSIVE: Banking giant ING was able to launch its second green bond earlier this month due to its past experience in structuring external green bonds for sustainability-conscious clients, the firm's global head of sustainable finance Leonie Schreve has claimed.
  
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• Civil rights 'under serious attack' across the globe

  27-11-2018 14:06
  More than half of countries use censorship, harassment or violence to repress public debate, warns a reportNearly six in 10 countries are seriously restricting people’s freedoms, according to a new report that warns of a growing repression around the world.According to the study, there is little or no space for activism in countries such as Eritrea and Syria, and also worrying signs in countries where democracy is considered well established, such as France, the US, Hungary and India. Cont
  
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• 'Siberian unicorn' walked Earth with humans

  27-11-2018 13:49 via bbc.co.uk
  A giant rhino that may have been the origin of the unicorn myth survived until about 35,000 years ago.
  
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• Former Npower boss Paul Massara: Business community will lead UK's energy transition

  27-11-2018 13:08
  Amid sluggish policy changes and falling technology and renewables costs, the UK's business community is likely to lead the transition to a low-carbon, decentralised and democratised energy system, Npower's former chief executive Paul Massara has suggested.
  
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• Strong chance of a new El Niño forming by early 2019

  27-11-2018 11:59 via bbc.co.uk
  The World Meteorological Organization says there's a 75-80% chance of the weather phenomenon forming by next February.
  
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• Drax seeks 'negative emissions' with biomass and CCS trial

  27-11-2018 11:59
  Drax has kicked off a six-month pilot scheme to trial carbon capture and storage (CCS) on one of the now four biomass units at its power station in Yorkshire.
  
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• Heineken granted water self-supply licence for UK operations

  27-11-2018 11:36
  Brewer Heineken has been granted a self-supply licence to deliver its own water and wastewater services for all of its UK operations, in a move it claims will bolster its water stewardship efforts.
  
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• Interface, Unilever and Coca-Cola among business leaders calling for UK net-zero emissions target

  27-11-2018 11:23
  The chief executives of major UK-based companies including Interface, Coca-Cola European Partners and Unilever have called for Prime Minister Theresa May to set legally binding targets that ensure the UK reaches net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.
  
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• Climate-warming El Niño very likely in 2019, says UN agency

  27-11-2018 11:00
  Natural cycle has major influence on global weather, bringing droughts and floodsThere is a 75-80% chance of a climate-warming El Niño event by February, according to the latest analysis from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization.The last El Niño event ended in 2016 and helped make that year the hottest ever recorded by adding to the heating caused by humanity’s carbon emissions. The 2019 event is not currently forecast to be as strong as in 2016. Continue reading.
  
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• Survey: 89% of UK fleet managers 'will switch to EVs before 2030'

  27-11-2018 10:59
  Almost nine in ten of the UK's fleet managers say they plan to switch the majority of their diesel and petrol vehicles with fully-electric or hybrid-electric vehicles (EVs) before 2028, new research by fleet management and telematics firm Geotab has found.
  
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• #MyClimateQuestions: experts and youth leaders respond – as it happened

  27-11-2018 08:50
  School students plan to go on strike in protest against inaction on climate change. Whether you approve of the strike or not, you were invited to submit questions here to be answered by climate experts and young campaigners. This blog is now closed – thanks for being part of #MyClimateQuestions 7.50am GMT Thank you everyone, this has been one of the most rewarding, illuminating blogs I’ve had the joy of running. Thanks to our panellists: Bill Hare, Simon Holmes à Court, Amanda
  
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• #MyClimateQuestions: experts and youth leaders respond - live

  27-11-2018 07:49
  This week, school students plan to go on strike in protest against inaction on climate change. Whether you approve of the strike or not, we welcome your questions, which will be answered here by climate experts and young campaigners6.49am GMT From Callum, aged 8: This spring has been really cold. Is that something to do with climate change? 6.43am GMT Max, 14, asks:Why are electric cars not everywhere yet? My family say they want one but they are still a bit too expensive.Continue reading...
  
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• Health effects of diesel 'cost European taxpayers billions'

  27-11-2018 07:01
  Traffic emissions responsible for at least €70bn damage every year, report saysAir pollution from roads causes at least €70bn (£62bn) in health damage every year in the European Union, according to a new report, with diesel fumes responsible for three-quarters of the harm.The research, commissioned by the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), found the vast majority of the costs were borne by taxpayers through government-funded health services. But these costs could be reduced
  
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• Country diary: the raven's call sounds oddly out of place

  27-11-2018 06:30
  Pickworth Great Wood, Rutland: These once-persecuted birds are gradually returning to their historic lowland hauntsThis February, visiting Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, I was mildly discombobulated to hear an enthusiastically cronking raven, sitting in the top of a tall conifer in the grounds. We perceive these intelligent and long-lived birds as western rulers of the upland skies, but they were once also characteristic of lowland woods. While they have been gradually recovering from historic
  
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• Mars: Nasa lands InSight robot to study planet's interior

  27-11-2018 04:22 via bbc.co.uk
  The US space agency's robot is the first mission aiming to study the Red Planet's deep interior.
  
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• 467 ways to die on a warming globe | Clive Hamilton

  27-11-2018 02:31
  While most people in most countries accept the truth of climate science, they reject its implications. What can be done to change that?
  A new study published in Nature has found evidence for 467 ways in which climate hazards due to global warming are making life on the planet harder for humans. It confirms that we are witnessing a shift in the functioning of the Earth system as a whole, a shift to a new state that is unsympathetic to the continued flourishing of human life.A changing climate is
  
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• Julia Banks quits Liberal party as Morrison announces April budget – politics live

  27-11-2018 02:13
  MP defects to crossbench to become independent as prime minister’s budget announcement paves way for May election. All the day’s events, live 1.12am GMT In her speech, Julia Banks said she saw people trade their vote for advancement, during the leadership spill.I am working on getting you the entire speech. 1.11am GMT Just to recap the last five minutes:Scott Morrison all but announced the election would be in May, shifting the budget to 2 April. Continue reading...
  
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• Great Pacific garbage patch swimmer forced to stop after nearly 3,000km

  27-11-2018 02:03
  Storm-damaged support ship means Ben Lecomte, 50, has to divert to Hawaii A French-American plastic pollution campaigner has given up his attempt to swim across the Pacific ocean after a storm broke the mainsail of his support ship, organisers have said.Ben Lecomte had completed about 2,780km (1,500 nautical miles) of the 9,260km (5,000-nautical mile) journey. The trip was to take him through 1,600km of the “Great Pacific garbage patch”, in an attempt to raise awareness of plastic po
  
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• Nasa Mission: InSight successfully lands on Mars

  27-11-2018 02:01 via bbc.co.uk
  The probe has already taken its first picture from the surface of the red planet.
  
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• High-street fashion giants urged to bolster viscose supply chain sustainability

  27-11-2018 01:01
  A group of big-name fashion retailers including H&M, ASOS and Marks & Spencer (M&S) have been urged to take ambitious action to make their viscose supply chains more sustainable, after a new report found that their suppliers were dumping toxic wastewater in waterways and fisheries.
  
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• High-street fashion giants urge viscose suppliers to bolster sustainability

  27-11-2018 01:01
  A group of big-name fashion retailers including H&M, ASOS and Inditex are urging their suppliers to take ambitious action to make their viscose processing methods more sustainable, after an investigation found that many were dumping toxic wastewater in waterways and fisheries.
  
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