Environment news

• Barratt Developments sets net-zero target for 2040

  30-06-2020 18:34
  
  The UK's largest housebuilder, Barratt Developments, has built on recently announced science-based targets by committing to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
  
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• Democrats say they have a bold climate plan – but Republicans have other plans

  30-06-2020 18:29
  
  Plan will be fodder for election-year attacks from Republicans who will frame it as economy-killing and a grab-bag of Democratic social policiesHouse Democrats on Tuesday released an ambitious and wide-ranging climate crisis plan on par with what scientists say the world will have to do to avert catastrophic warming.But the US government remains far from ready to seriously tackle the problem, and the action plan will be fodder for election-year attacks from Republicans who will frame it as econo
  
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• Seven key things to consider when implementing smart grids

  30-06-2020 17:30
  
  Edie recently hosted a 45-minute masterclass webinar on smart grids, which saw expert speakers from E.ON and the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) provide best-practice advice on installing and operating flexible energy technologies. Here, we round up their key takeaways.
  
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• Climate change: UK could hit 40C 'regularly' by end of this century

  30-06-2020 17:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Britain could see temperatures up to 40C every few years by 2100 if carbon emissions stay very high.
  
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• Likelihood of 40C temperatures in UK is ‘rapidly accelerating’

  30-06-2020 17:00
  
  Such deadly heat may become regular occurrence later this century, scientists findThe likelihood of the UK experiencing deadly 40C temperatures for the first time is “rapidly accelerating” due to the climate crisis, scientists have found.The research shows that such searing heat could become a regular occurrence by the end of the century unless carbon emissions are cut to zero. Global heating has already made UK heatwaves 30 times more likely and extreme temperatures led to 3,400 ear
  
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• 7 key things to consider when implementing smart grids

  30-06-2020 16:38
  
  Edie recently hosted a 45-minute masterclass webinar on smart grids, which saw expert speakers from E.ON and the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) provide best-practice advice on installing and operating flexible energy technologies. Here, we round up their key takeaways.
  
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• Mystery over monster star's vanishing act

  30-06-2020 14:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A huge star has disappeared - did it become a black hole?
  
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• Ban burning and burying of animals in US Covid-19 farm culls, NGOs urge

  30-06-2020 13:58
  
  As coronavirus forces many farmers to cull their animals on-farm, burying animals in unlined pits or burning them in open air pyres could pose risk to the public, activists argue
  As the row over mass animal cullings in the US continues, public and environmental health NGOs are asking the government to ban two livestock carcass disposal methods – burying in unlined pits and burning in open air pyres – until the Covid-19 pandemic is “resolved”.Risks to the public from the m
  
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• 'A false start': Green groups express disappointment in Boris Johnson's 'New Deal' recovery package

  30-06-2020 13:46
  
  Key members of the UK's green economy have been offering their thoughts on Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Covid-19 recovery package, the fundamentals of which have now been unveiled. The general feeling is one of dismay, following months of campaigning.
  
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• Golden and white-tailed eagles were once widespread across Wales

  30-06-2020 13:39
  
  Researchers analyse historical records and museum artefacts to pinpoint the birds’ distribution
  Two of the most well-known birds of prey – the golden eagle and white-tailed eagle – once soared high above the whole of Wales, a study has concluded.Researchers analysed historical records, museum artefacts, medieval poetry and place names featuring eryr – the Welsh word for eagle – to pinpoint the distribution of the birds. Continue reading...
  
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• I believe Roundup gave me cancer. The Monsanto settlement is a slap in the face | Christine Sheppard

  30-06-2020 12:38
  
  I have to inject myself with needles just to stay alive. Still, Bayer will continue to sell Roundup, and refused to label it as carcinogenicLast Wednesday was my 71st birthday, a low-key celebration in these Covid-19 times. Then I heard the news that the pharmaceutical conglomerate Bayer has offered a settlement to resolve several massive class-action lawsuits alleging that the company’s herbicide, Roundup, is dangerous and causes cancer.I’m one of the thousands of people who filed s
  
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• Swansea tidal energy: Hopes of backing for Dragon Island plan

  30-06-2020 12:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ministers open to discussion about plans for a dragon-shaped tidal energy island off Swansea Bay.
  
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• McDonald's to install EV chargers at all UK drive-thrus

  30-06-2020 12:03
  
  McDonald's UK & Ireland has unveiled plans to install electric vehicle (EV) charging points at all restaurants with a drive-thru, as part of a partnership with InstaVolt.
  
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• Boris Johnson's New Deal for Britain yet to align with green recovery calls

  30-06-2020 12:03
  
  Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce a multi-billion-pound "New Deal for Britain" that prioritises jobs and infrastructure growth to respond to the economic crash caused by Covid-19, but following months of calls for a "green recovery," the environment is largely absent from the plan.
  
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• Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China

  30-06-2020 09:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The new strain, scientists say, is carried by pigs but can infect humans and requires close monitoring.
  
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• Earth's final frontier: the global race to map the entire ocean floor

  30-06-2020 09:30
  
  An ambitious project to chart the seabed by 2030 could help countries prepare for tsunamis, protect marine habitats and monitor deep-sea mining. But the challenge is unprecedentedOn a wall facing Vicki Ferrini’s desk hangs a giant map of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. At 6ft by 8ft, it’s the largest size available on the printer at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where she works as a geoinformatics researcher. “I of course want it even bigger,” she says.The map is
  
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• 'Swim happy!': family save bear found swimming with a plastic jar on its head – video

  30-06-2020 09:28
  
  A family were fishing on a lake in Wisconsin when they spotted a bear with a plastic jar stuck on its head. After several attempts at moving their boat next to the bear and removing the jar, they were finally able to free the animal. 'Never dreamt we would ever do this in our life time,' Tricia Hurt wrote on Facebook. 'Out on Marshmiller Lake yesterday with Brian Hurt and Brady Hurt when we spotted this poor bear. He made it to shore after all that' Continue reading...
  
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• Britain beyond lockdown: can we make more space for nature?

  30-06-2020 09:00
  
  The pandemic has highlighted the fragility of global supply chains and identified a need to redefine the role of food in the economy
  The first post-lockdown crops of the land army have been harvested. The food – chard, spinach, lettuce and radish – is being parcelled out to the local shops, market stalls and those in need. Now the volunteer labour force has its sights on a new goal: a land-use revolution that will make UK farming more nature friendly, plant-based and resilient to fut
  
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• How do you deal with 9m tonnes of suffocating seaweed?

  30-06-2020 07:30
  
  Across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, scientists are developing alternative sustainable solutions to the golden tide of SargassumThe Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, first detected by Nasa observation satellites in 2011 and now known to be the world’s largest bloom of seaweed, stretches for 5,500 miles (8,850km) from the Gulf of Mexico to the western coast of Africa.Millions of tonnes of floating Sargassum seaweed in coastal waters smother fragile seagrass habitats, suffocate coral re
  
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• Environmental experts dismayed by details of Johnson's 'New Deal'

  30-06-2020 07:00
  
  Critics say PMs promise to ‘build back greener’ is not delivered by plans revealed so far Boris Johnson is to set out a “new deal” for jobs and infrastructure on Tuesday, painting himself as a “Rooseveltian” prime minister lifting Britain out of the biggest recession in centuries, and a pledge to use the coronavirus crisis to tackle unresolved challenges such as health, education and regional inequalities.“To that end, we will build build build,” h
  
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• South pole warming three times faster than rest of the world, our research shows | Kyle Clem for the Conversation

  30-06-2020 02:21
  
  Dramatic change in Antarctica’s interior in past three decades a result of effects from tropical variability working together with increasing greenhouse gases Climate scientists long thought Antarctica’s interior may not be very sensitive to warming, but our research, published this week, shows a dramatic change.Over the past 30 years, the south pole has been one of the fastest-changing places on Earth, warming more than three times more rapidly than the rest of the world. Continue r
  
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• UN: Finance giants must urgently set biodiversity targets and aim for 'net-positive'

  30-06-2020 02:01
  
  Despite the continued trends towards divestment from big emitters and investment in low-carbon technologies, the world's biggest finance firms are failing to address biodiversity loss caused by organisations within their portfolios.
  
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