Environment news

• Coronavirus: Animals in zoos 'lonely' without visitors

  01-05-2020 19:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Birds, elephants and primates are among those missing guests, zoos around the world say.
  
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• Environmental controls key to coronavirus recovery, chancellor told

  01-05-2020 18:00
  
  Cross-party group of MPs ask for funds to encourage better agriculture, halt deforestation and avoid another pandemicCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageStrengthening environmental regulations must be a key plank of the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis to help prevent the spread of future pandemics, say a cross-party group of MPs – and bailouts for industries must contain strict conditions on their future environmental performance.The expansion
  
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• Luton airport briefly bursts into life, as Wizz Air flies in from Bulgaria

  01-05-2020 17:49
  
  Just a few hundred seasonal pickers flew in on Friday, a far cry from the 49,000 passengers a day before the pandemicCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageJust after 7.30 on Friday morning the arrivals hall at London Luton Airport burst into life following a 10-day shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100 passengers arrived on Wizz Air flight W6 4301 from the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, on the airline’s first scheduled commercial flight since the
  
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• Covid-19 outbreaks at Irish meat plants raise fears over worker safety

  01-05-2020 17:24
  
  Third of workers at factory in Tipperary test positive, while McDonald’s supplier forced to temporarily halt productionAn outbreak of Covid-19 among workers in a meat factory in Tipperary has raised fears that the virus is spreading through abattoirs and meat-processing plants in Ireland.Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on agriculture, Brian Stanley, told the Irish parliament last night that 120 workers at the Rosderra Meats plant in Roscrea had tested positive for the virus. He also
  
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• Five steps to building a resilient carbon strategy in a post-pandemic world

  01-05-2020 16:57
  
  During edie's recent online masterclass, sustainability and energy specialists from Centrica and its Business Solutions arm discussed steps to building corporate carbon strategies while exploring how attitudes towards decarbonisation will change as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
  
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• Five steps to building a resilient carbon strategy in a post-coronavirus world

  01-05-2020 16:25
  
  During edie's recent online masterclass, sustainability and energy specialists from Centrica and its Business Solutions arm discussed steps to building corporate carbon strategies while exploring how attitudes towards decarbonisation will change as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
  
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• 'Not just weeds': how rebel botanists are using graffiti to name forgotten flora

  01-05-2020 16:00
  
  Pavement chalking to draw attention to wild flowers and plants in urban areas has gone viral across Europe – but UK chalkers could face legal actionRead more stories from our wild cities weekA rising international force of rebel botanists armed with chalk has taken up street graffiti to highlight the names and importance of the diverse but downtrodden flora growing in the cracks of paths and walls in towns and cities across Europe.The idea of naming wild plants wherever they go – whi
  
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• City leaders aim to shape green recovery from coronavirus crisis

  01-05-2020 15:21
  
  Mayors coordinating efforts to support a low-carbon, sustainable path out of lockdownsCities around the world are taking the lead in post-coronavirus planning, with a raft of environmental initiatives being rolled out in places from Bogotá to Barcelona to ensure public safety and bolster the fight against climate breakdown.Mayors from cities in Europe, the US and Africa held talks this week to coordinate their efforts to support a low-carbon, sustainable recovery from the crisis as nation
  
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• Revealed: US fossil fuel companies handed at least $50m in coronavirus aid

  01-05-2020 14:16
  
  Oil and mining firms – some with ties to Trump officials – taking advantage of funding meant for small businesses, review showsUS fossil fuel companies have taken at least $50m in taxpayer money they likely won’t have to pay back, according to a review of coronavirus aid meant for struggling small businesses by the investigative research group Documented and the Guardian.A total of $28m is going to three coal mining companies, including two with ties to Trump officials, bolster
  
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• Fossil fuel firms linked to Trump get millions in coronavirus small business aid

  01-05-2020 14:16
  
  Revealed: Oil and mining firms – some with ties to Trump officials – taking advantage of funding, review showsUS fossil fuel companies have taken at least $50m in taxpayer money they likely won’t have to pay back, according to a review of coronavirus aid meant for struggling small businesses by the investigative research group Documented and the Guardian.A total of $28m is going to three coal mining companies, including two with ties to Trump officials, bolstering a dying Ameri
  
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• Why is Trump insisting that meat-packing plants stay open despite risks? | Art Cullen

  01-05-2020 13:31
  
  The president said he is protecting companies from liability – but employees are afraid of sick leave and filing for workers’ comp or unemploymentCoronavirus – live US updatesLive global updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThousands of workers stream in single file, at dawn and mid-afternoon, to suit up in masks and chain gloves and put their lives on the line so you can put cheap sausage on your biscuit.They are accustomed to living in fear – of starvation from drough
  
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• Engagement, Net-Zero & Mission Possible: edie gears up for bumper month of online content and events

  01-05-2020 12:05
  
  With the UK lockdown continuing into May, edie is keeping up the positive sustainability and climate action with a host of exclusive interviews and reports, two themed weeks of free online events, and the launch of the flagship Mission Possible 2020 report.
  
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• Can't hurry love: slow worms embrace marathon sessions of lockdown loving

  01-05-2020 12:00
  
  If you’re gardening more than usual, try not to disturb the legless lizard, which can mate for up to 10 hours at a time in May Read more stories from our wild cities weekUnder a small, sun-baked mat, a curled metallic-gold slow worm lies basking in the heat, the dark stripe running down its body revealing its youth. Sensing attention, it begins to wriggle away, revealing a companion, which speeds rapidly into the grasses in the opposite direction.After a winter of social distancing, slow w
  
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• Government-funded Vehicle-to-Grid project completes grid balancing trials

  01-05-2020 11:15
  
  A Government-funded Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) project has successfully participated in a trial aimed at providing real-time control of when and how electric vehicles (EVs) are charged and discharged to help balance the grid.
  
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• Oxford University to divest from fossil fuels and align to net-zero strategies

  01-05-2020 09:55
  
  Oxford University has announced that is divesting its remaining investments away from fossil fuel companies and how its fund management service can engage with organisations that showcase net-zero business plans.
  
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• Greene King reaches zero-waste-to-landfill status

  01-05-2020 09:55
  
  Greene King has become the first UK pub chain to achieve the Carbon Trust’s Zero Waste to Landfill Standard, after diverting all waste streams away from landfill across its 1,700 managed pubs.
  
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• ‘No one comes': the cruise ship crews cast adrift by coronavirus

  01-05-2020 09:15
  
  From the Galapagos to Dubai crew have been left marooned amid squabbles over who is responsible for their welfare
  Revealed: 100,000 crew never made it off cruise ships amid coronavirus crisis
  The Apex was nearly finished. A brand new cruise ship for the Celebrity Cruises line, it was a towering, 117,000-ton vessel with luxuries like a “resort deck” featuring martini-glass-shaped jacuzzis and a movable platform cantilevered off the side – known as “the Magic Carpet”
  
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• LED lights halve unwanted fish in nets, research finds

  01-05-2020 08:00
  
  Study shows lit escape holes allow non-target species to get away, protecting populationsA simple technique to “illuminate the exits” in trawl fishing nets can almost halve the numbers of unwanted catch, new research has found, potentially protecting both the environment and fishermen’s livelihoods.Attaching LED lights to larger holes in nets, intended to allow non-target species to escape, dramatically reduced the numbers killed unnecessarily, a team from Bangor University fou
  
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• Stealth plunder of Argentinian waters raises fears over marine monitoring

  01-05-2020 01:01
  
  Green groups fear coronavirus lockdown has weakened environmental protectionsAn “armada” of more than 100 fishing vessels are illegally plundering south Atlantic waters close to Argentina, environmental groups say, raising concerns that the coronavirus lockdown has weakened already fragile marine protections.The incursion of the ships, mostly from east Asia, appears to have been carried out by stealth. The vessels waited until nightfall, shut down satellite tracking systems in coordi
  
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• High microplastic concentration found on ocean floor

  01-05-2020 01:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Mediterranean sediments are shown to have up to 1.9 million tiny plastic pieces per square metre.
  
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