Environment news

• Nasa SpaceX crew mission cleared to launch

  22-05-2020 22:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A review panel finds no technical reason to delay the first US orbital crew launch in nine years.
  
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• Endangered shorebirds unsustainably hunted during migrations, records show

  22-05-2020 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  More than 30 species, including nine that are threatened, are being hunted unsustainably, report findsMore than 30 shorebird species that fly across oceans each year to visit Australia – including nine that are threatened – are being hunted during their long migrations, according to a study that analysed decades of records from 14 countries.The study, which experts said filled a major gap in the world’s knowledge about the impact of hunting on declining shorebird numbers, found
  
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• Rare white grizzly bear spotted in Canada's Rocky Mountains – video

  22-05-2020 20:57 via theguardian.com
  
  A rare white grizzly bear has been spotted in Canada's Rocky Mountains. According to experts, the colouring is the result of a recessive gene in the cub – not albinism.  Local wildlife officials have known about the white grizzly since 2017, but Cara Clarkson’s mobile phone video of the bear, which went viral, marks the first time the public has caught a glimpse of the predatorRare white grizzly bear sighted in Canadian Rockies Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian view on climate and Covid: time to make different choices | Editorial

  22-05-2020 19:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite some fine words about the environmental crisis, ministers are pushing ahead with a trade bill that threatens to damage the planet The dust storms that devastated the US prairie during the Great Depression were the worst ecological disaster in American history. They were also, partly, manmade. Decades of farming in the Great Plains had rid the topsoil of its native grass, leaving nothing to prevent fields crumbling to dust when drought struck in 1931. Across the Dust Bowl in midwest Ameri
  
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• ‘Exploitative conditions’: Germany to reform meat industry after spate of Covid-19 cases

  22-05-2020 18:21 via theguardian.com
  
  Ban on use of subcontractors and fines of €30,000 for slaughterhouses breaching new labour regulations a ‘historic moment’, say campaignersCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe German government has announced a series of reforms of the meat industry, including a ban on the use of subcontractors and fines of €30,000 (£26,000) for companies breaching labour regulations, as slaughterhouses have emerged as coronavirus hotspots.A number of m
  
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• Zero-carbon Humber cluster to rollout carbon capture and hydrogen production

  22-05-2020 17:32
  
  Plans to create the world's first zero-carbon industrial cluster in the Humber region reached another milestone this week, as Phillips 66 and Uniper signed an agreement to deploy a carbon capture and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen production facility.
  
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• #SustyTalk: Danone's Eric Soubeiran on Covid-19 and World Biodiversity Day

  22-05-2020 17:32
  
  edie's #SustyTalk interview series continues with Danone's vice president for nature and water cycle Eric Soubeiran discussing regenerative agriculture and food practices and climate leadership to mark world biodiversity day.
  
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• Government launches £40m Clean Growth Fund to assist with net-zero vision

  22-05-2020 17:32
  
  The UK Government has unveiled a £40m Clean Growth Fund to support start-up companies in the fields of low-carbon power, waste, transport and buildings, with hopes that funding could rise to £100m by 2021.
  
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• Net-Zero Week Podcast (Two-part special): Green recoveries and net-zero strategy deep dives

  22-05-2020 16:05
  
  For Net-Zero Week, the edie podcast is split into two parts, first to discuss green recoveries with Christiana Figueres, Jonathon Porritt and Paul Polman, before embarking on a deep dive of what makes a net-zero target with engineering firm Jacobs, online retailer Zalando and episode sponsors Centrica Business Solutions.
  
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• Has the coronavirus pandemic made us all nicer?

  22-05-2020 11:40 via theguardian.com
  
  The revival of community has been an exciting upside, from mask weavers to valiant volunteersWhat doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Is that true of the virus? Has it made us a better species, more compassionate, altruistic, more sensitive to the needs of our neighbours, relatives, ourselves?The revival of community has been one of the more exciting upsides from Covid-19. Homo sapiens got where they did by being cooperative and collaborative, and we’ve seen that on a daily basis: t
  
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• Tate & Lyle to cut emissions by 30% by 2030

  22-05-2020 11:37
  
  Food and drink ingredient supplier Tate & Lyle has published a new set of environmental targets, pledging to reduce operational emissions by 30% by 2030 and a 15% reduction in value chain emissions.
  
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• Report: Renewables to account for three-quarters of UK's power demand by 2050

  22-05-2020 11:21
  
  The UK could source 76% of its power demand from renewables by 2050, according to a new report from RenewableUK which claims that the nation's net-zero target will spur rapid demand for green hydrogen while attracting more than £50bn to an already world-leading offshore wind sector.
  
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• Europe's draft 'green recovery' plan leaked

  22-05-2020 11:03
  
  The European Commission's promised green recovery plan will focus on building renovation, renewables and hydrogen as well as clean mobility and the circular economy, according to a leaked working document obtained by EURACTIV.
  
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• Coronavirus: Acting earlier would have saved lives, says Sage member

  22-05-2020 08:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Locking down the UK sooner would have made a big difference to the death rate, a scientific adviser says.
  
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• Humanity must take this chance to find a new 'normal' – and safeguard our planet

  22-05-2020 08:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Climate risks and opportunities need to be incorporated into the financial system as well as public policymaking and infrastructureCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThere is a lot of talk about getting back to normal after the Covid-19 crisis is over. And yet normal – business as usual – is what has made our planet and our societies vulnerable to crises in the first place.Normal means cutting down huge swathes of forest to plant crops. Normal means ove
  
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• Young climate activists call for EU to radically reform farming sector

  22-05-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Fridays for Future to publish letter urging reform of common agricultural policy ahead of European commission meeting The EU’s farming sector needs radical reform, and the common agricultural policy (CAP) must be rewritten if the climate crisis is to be tackled, a group of young climate activists will urge.Fridays for Future, founded by teenagers in the wake of Greta Thunberg’s school strikes, will confront the European commission’s vice-president, Frans Timmermans, online to c
  
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• We now have the proof: greening the economy doesn't come at the price of prosperity | Fiona Harvey

  22-05-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After the financial crisis, green investment paid dividends. Coronavirus presents an even greater opportunityEverest is once again visible from Kathmandu, after decades shrouded in pollution. Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to levels last seen in 2006. Nature has returned to our streets with a quack and a flurry, and people are waking to birdsong in inner cities as the roar of traffic recedes.Clear skies bring little cheer at the food bank, however. Birdsong might lift the heart, but it won
  
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• We now have the proof: greening the economy doesn't come at the price of prosperity

  22-05-2020 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  After the financial crisis, green investment paid dividends. Coronavirus presents an even greater opportunityEverest is once again visible from Kathmandu, after decades shrouded in pollution. Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen to levels last seen in 2006. Nature has returned to our streets with a quack and a flurry, and people are waking to birdsong in inner cities as the roar of traffic recedes.Clear skies bring little cheer at the food bank, however. Birdsong might lift the heart, but it won
  
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• Disappearances, danger and death: what is happening to fishery observers?

  22-05-2020 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The people who monitor ships for illegal fishing and labour practices have been vanishing under suspicious circumstancesLiz Mitchell was on her laptop in her living room in Eugene, Oregon, when she got the news. Thousands of miles away, on a Taiwanese fishing boat, a fishery observer named Eritara Aati Kaierua had been found dead.Details were scant. The ship’s name (Win Far No 636), the dead man’s passport number, and where the boat was now headed: the port of Kiribati, a central Pac
  
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• Microplastic pollution in oceans vastly underestimated – study

  22-05-2020 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Particles may outnumber zooplankton, which underpin marine life and regulate climateThe abundance of microplastic pollution in the oceans is likely to have been vastly underestimated, according to research that suggests there are at least double the number of particles as previously thought.Scientists trawled waters off the coasts of the UK and US and found many more particles using nets with a fine mesh size than when using coarser ones usually used to filter microplastics. The addition of thes
  
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• Coronavirus: Immune clue sparks treatment hope

  22-05-2020 06:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Better understanding of Covid-19's impact on the immune system gives hope an existing drug might aid recovery.
  
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• Pollution: Birds 'ingesting hundreds of bits of plastic a day'

  22-05-2020 01:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Plastic pollutants in UK rivers are finding their way into wildlife and moving up the food chain.
  
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